Across the Ocean (Zoro x OC)

9 - Reunion

"You can't be serious?" Akiko murmured, resting her chin on her hand. Not far from the scaffold, she was sitting in a café and was drinking a cup of coffee. However, people had started shouting in horror a second ago: "Look!", "What is he doing?", "Is he crazy?"

The peace was gone, and her coffee got colder with every passing minute: The redhead's eyebrows furrowed and a strained tone left her throat. She could have guessed that the captain of the Straw Hats was crazy in his own way, but climbing onto this monument-like scaffold was way beyond! Still, the actual question was: How did he manage to get Buggy the Clown to get him into the guillotine?

"For displeasing me, I sentence you, Monkey D. Luffy, to a flashy execution!" Buggy's voice rang loudly across the square and suddenly silenced those who were present. Only his gang cheered him on with a "Yahoo!" and jumped joyfully from one leg to the other.

It was only now that the residents of Loguetown became aware of the situation's seriousness and immediately distanced themselves from the pirate gang that was about spreading chaos. Of course, they could not leave the town square, their curiosity was too great: the last time someone had stood on the scaffold was a long time ago and none other than Gol D. Roger!

"Your execution will be for the public!" Of course, Buggy was also more than aware of the impact of his performance and he wanted and loved nothing else: performing on the big stage in front of a big audience!

Akiko's gaze, however, slid to the sky, which lost its blue with this unforeseeable event and gave way to gray, monstrous towers of clouds. Didn't look good. That would bring in a violent storm she had no use for!

The redhead jumped up from her chair; luckily, she had already paid for her drink. If this clown screamed like that, the Marines would arrive immediately! But maybe she could use this to her advantage? She was corrected, though: it was not Buggy who caused the representatives of justice to rush in, but the captain of the Straw Hats himself, when he puffed out his cheeks and shouted across the square so loudly that he could certainly be heard all the way to the harbour: "I'll be King of the Pirates!"

The crowd in front of the scaffold gulped. These words went through the bone and marrow, and Akiko also felt the hackle's be raised.

"W-What?!", "The Pirate King?", "He says that here of all places...", "How outrageous!" Loguetown's residents found their words again and yet the incredulity of their syllables showed that they had not yet digested the current situation, which almost reminisce the past.

"Is that all you've got to say, rubber boy?" Buggy, with a triumphant laugh, swung his sabre to cut off Luffy's head. The boy could no longer free himself, as his head and hands were trapped in the device. That would mean his final end!

Luffy was all too aware of this: even if he wanted to use his devil fruit powers, he had no way to use them properly. If he could have grabbed onto a mast or something like that, it would have been different, but being shut-in... However, his hope had not vanished yet, because even if he could not free himself, he still had his crew he could count on.

Whether he had actually spotted the two or not was impossible to say - Luffy's voice rang loudly across the square once again: "Sanji! Zoro! Help me out of here!"

Buggy's pale blue eyes fixed on the rubber boy in front of him, but then immediately shifted to the feast a few meters below them, searching for the green-haired swordsman, where he had no idea who was the other named one. However, since he did not spot them at all, another loud laugh escaped him: "So you're here too, Zoro? Of course, you are! But apparently you're too late!"