The Daughter of the King (English)

Chapter 28 - On to the Grand Line!

I'm back~

Before I forget. If any of you have followed meon Facebook, yes~ I have bad news. You must have noticed that identityverification was requested at some point? Now you know that "Kitsune Nee-chan"is my pseudonym, so there are no legal documents, which meant that I can nolonger use my account. 

 But don't despair. I've been on Tumblr fora while now (but I only post there in English). So if you would like to seesome of my fan fiction recommendations, drawings, reactions, etc. all you haveto do is follow this link: (see comment section)

Well, I don't want to torture you any more and I hope you enjoy the new chapter.

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"Hey, what's that smell?" Nami askedas her nose suddenly detected a smell. "A smell?" "Yeah, it kindof smells like...smoke and sweat." "You probably just smell thesobagaki," Zoro said and pointed with his thumb at the blonde who wasstanding next to him. "What was that, you bushido brown?!" hissed the Smutjeand stepped closer to the swordsman, "At least I know the importance ofpersonal hygiene. Do you even know what soap is?" "But you're theonly one of us who smokes here, curly cook." Before the argument betweenthe two could get out of hand, Nami stepped between them and put a hand on eachthere chest. "Now slow down, guys. We haven't even been back on sea for 10minutes and you're trying to smash each other's heads." "Now that yousay it," Usopp said, putting his hand thoughtfully on his chin, "Inotice that smell too." "What are you talking about? I don't smellanything." Following his nose, the black-haired man turned his head towards thestraw hat wearing woman. The others followed his gaze. "Why are you all lookingat me like that?" asked Luffy, tilting her head a little to the side. Withnarrowed eyes, Nami stepped closer to the younger one and sniffed, which sheimmediately regretted. "Good heavens. Luffy, you smell worse than Zoro'ssocks after he trains! You need a shower immediately!" "WHAT?! But we are soclose to the Grand Line! Can't I freshen up later?" "Absolutely not!I'd rather not risk you polluting our cabin with your stench. Or one of theclosed rooms." Luffy tried to convince Nami for a while, but the orange-hairedwoman couldn't be persuaded. She had one hand on her hip and was pointingtoward the bathroom with the other. "I don't want to hear any more rebuttals,young lady! March and finally go wash this smell off!" Defeated, Luffy hung herhead and disappeared into the bathroom a short time later.

"Really," said Nami and just shook her head, "how can you act like that?" "I'm more wondering why Luffy smells like smoke," Usopp spoke up, who had his arms crossed in front of him. "It could be because of that Marine Captain who was stationed in Lougetown and cut us off from the port," Sanji said. Just the thought of the gray-haired man darkened his mood. "Marine Captain?!" Nami's eyes had widened and she seemed to have become a little paler. "Not 'White Hunter' Smoker!" Usopp became nervous when he saw the navigator's reaction. "You-you've heard of him?" "Just rumors. It is said that he alone is responsible for the fact that hardly any pirates from the East Blue have made it to the Grand Line in recent years. He's said to be worse than any bloodhound." "Eeeeeeh, w-w-what?! T-there is someone like that?! B-but if you r-r-ran into that c-c-captain, h-h-how did you e-escape him?" "We didn't." "HUH?!" "How about we discuss this inside?" reported Zoro spoke up and pointed behind him with his thumb, "I don't know about you, but I don't feel like standing here in the storm all the time." "You, you're right." "I'll prepare something warm to drink for us." "And I want to know what exactly happened! How did Smoker find out we were in town? And more importantly, what happened at the scaffold?"

"WHAT?!" Usopp and Nami screamed in horror whenthe other two told them what happened. "Wait a moment. Time out! You wantto tell us that if it wasn't for that Lightning X-Makina..." theblack-haired man began, before the only woman in the room at the momentfinished his sentence, "...Luffy would be...then she would be now...""Yes," said Sanji before taking another drag from his cigarette. Hestill had the image in his mind and was sure that it would haunt him for quitesome time. Zoro stood leaning against the wall with his arms folded, his gazedirected to the floor as he said, "I don't know what was worse. The factthat we couldn't have prevented it or that she even apologized with asmile." No one saw him ball his hand into a fist. "What normal personsmiles when they are about to die?!" "Luffy is not a 'normal' person.We've seen this more than once," said the orange-haired woman, looking deepin thought into her cup. An oppressive silence had fallen over the galley aseveryone present was lost in their own thoughts. However, there was one thoughtthey all shared. "We almost lostLuffy."