The Daughter of the King (English)

Chapter 20 - Arrival on Konomi

Luffy lay relaxed on the extended bow with herhands behind her head. Her straw hat lay on her face. Seagulls flew above themand fish jumped out of the water next to them. Sanji and Yosaku sat in thefront of the boat. Satisfied, she stretched. According to the bounty hunter, itwould be a while before they reached the coast of... what was the name of theisland again? Oh yes, Konomi. Until they could see the shores of Konomi. Shestood up, threw her arms in the air and shouted: "The weather is great!" Sheslid off the bow and ran happily to the stern. "So the Grand Line is in thisdirection?" Then she ran back to the bow. "Or is it in that direction?" Shebegan to climb the mast, the room and stood on the railing, every second. Sanjisilently watched his captain. Her behavior reminded him of children he had seenin the villages when he was replenishing supplies for the Baratie. They were soexcited too. Was it simply because she was looking forward to the Grand Line orwas it more about seeing her crew again? However, her constant running aroundwas slowly getting on his nerves. "Luffy, could you maybe stop this? Yourconstant running around is starting to make me nervous. Besides, if you're notcareful, you could fall into the water." Grinning, she put her arms behindher head, leaned forward and looked at him between her legs. "I'msorry." She stood up again and jumped down from the small rise. "Wefinally found a chef for our crew. Now we just have to find Nami and then wecan set course for the Grand Line!" "Nami~. Just thinking about herbeauty makes me feel like I'm in paradise. It would be fantastic if we caughtup with her soon," Sanji began to enthuse. A slight blush had come to his faceand...had the smoke from his cigarette just turned into hearts? Luffy looked athim a little confused. Did he say something embarrassing? No, his facialexpressions didn't indicate in the slightest that he was uncomfortable and hedidn't seem angry either. So why was he blushing? Luffy sat on the railing ofthe bow and looked at Yosaku. "Hey, Yosaku, we're almost there, right? The islandwhere Nami is." He hadn't spoken a word for a while. It almost seemed asif he was already imagining the worst. Taken out of his thoughts, he looked ather blankly. How could she be so calm? Didn't she know what danger they werein? He slapped his hands on his thighs before pointing a finger at her. "You'retoo naive! Way too naive! Haven't you figured it out yet?! We are gettingcloser to Arlong Park with every passing second! At that time, Sister Nami'seyes looked closely at Arlong's bounty. Things are not as simple as they seem!"He reached for his knees. "Sister Nami is certainly after the 20,000,000 Berriesthat are placed on Arlong's head. While we're still fine, for all we know, shemight have already sneaked into his base!" Luffy stretched and yawnedbefore looking at Sanji. "It's about time for lunch, don't youthink?" "Yes." Yosaku burst into tears. Weren't they taking serious about that?!

He jumped up and shouted in disbelief:"Don't tell me you've never heard of Arlong?!" Sanji was the first tospeak: "Arlong? Who's that supposed to be?" "I've never heard ofhim!" Yosaku wanted to fall over. That couldn't be true! He reached intohis coat and pulled out a pipe. Luffy covered her ears as the shrill sound rangout. "Now listen to me carefully because I'm going to tell you WHO Arlongis!" The two of them glanced at each other briefly before followingYosaku, who was pacing back and forth, with their eyes. "Arlong is afishman who has been to the Grand Line." "A fishman?" "Afishman ha..., I've never seen one before." Now that I think about it, I heardthat they have a beautiful island on the Grand Line. The purest paradise! Theremust be mermaids there too." While Sanji was raving again, Luffy got a pad anda pen and sat cross-legged on the railing again. She quickly made a smalldrawing as she muttered, "Let's see if I can do this." She turned itaround and asked, "Do they look anything like this?" Sanji couldn'thelp but laugh. The straw hat wearer had simply painted a fish with four legsinstead of fins. "That's really brilliant what you painted!" "Could you two bea little more serious about this?!" Yosaku shouted. Did they both think it wasall a joke?! He sat down and looked at them both seriously. "Well, I'd betterstart from the beginning. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. But theGrand Line is also called 'the pirate's grave'. Because of the three sinisterpowers that rule there. One of them are the 7 Shichibukai." "Shichibukai?""Yes, exactly. There are 7 pirates tolerated by the government.""What are you talking about?" Sanji intervened, "Since when hasthe government tolerated pirates? I can't imagine that." Luffy thought for amoment. Did Garp perhaps mention them during one of his visits? "The sevenattack other pirates and give part of their loot to the governments. In returnthey leave them alone. To other pirates they are just government dogs, but theyare powerful! One of the 7 Shichibukai is Hawkeye Mihawk, the man who defeatedZoro." The black-haired woman's eyes had widened and she began to hit herfeet together. "Wow, that's incredible! There are seven like him?" Sanji lookedat her a little uncertainly. Her enthusiasm seemed a little misplaced to him.Yosaku continued. "Among the Shichibukai is a fishman, Jinbei, the captain of apirate crew with only fishmen. And the person who fought with Jinbei on theGrand Line is a vicious and destructive pirate...Arlong!" While Yosaku hadspoken, Luffy had made another drawing. "Like this?" This time it was a fishdrawn upright. Instead of fins on the sides it had two arms and instead of thetail fin it had two legs. "It looks exactly like the previous one, only it'sstanding," Sanji noted. Yosaku's face had contorted into a frightened grimaceas he said, "Since Arlong came to the East Blue, he has already devastatedover 20 villages. His power is far beyond that of Don Krieg!" "So whywould Nami go to someone like that alone?" asked Sanji. "Like I said,she'll be after the bounty." Sanji had that dreamy look in his voice againand said, "No, Nami could be a mermaid herself, as cute as she is." Luffyhad added hair to her drawing and added Nami's name before showing it to thetwo again. "Something like that?" Sanji immediately fell out of his dream worldwhen he saw her drawing. "You don't joke about something like that!"he shouted at her, before he calmed down a bit and took her pad and pen,"Here I'll show you what a mermaid looks like!" Sanji had drawn avery detailed picture at a remarkable speed showed it to her. "This is what amermaid looks like!" Luffy blinked a few times. The mermaid looked like a youngwoman on top, but from the waist down she resembled a fish.