One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-

"This is all your fault, Zoro!" Nami snapped as she glanced back at the swordsman trailing behind us.

"The whole town is looking for us! It was going to happen sooner or later, wasn't it?!" Zoro snapped right back.

"He's right!" I laughed. "But right now, instead of pointing fingers, perhaps we should focus on not getting caught!"

"You can't run forever!" someone in the crowd sneered.

"This way!" Luffy shouted as he motioned for us to take a sharp turn down a nearby alleyway.

"Right!" Nami and I nodded before ducking as the captain quickly stretched his arm back to grab hold of Zoro who had continued running forward.

"Where'd they go?!"

"Check the alley!"

"You don't think they're on the rooftops, do you?"

"Dammit! We lost them!"

"I don't get it—I'm sure they went this way!"

"We better keep moving!"

"Alright, but we better check inside the buildings too!"

"Good! We'll split up, let's go!"

I breathlessly sighed as I listened to the crowd above us disburse and go their separate ways. Luffy clenched his jaw as he desperately clung to the bridge's underside, trying his best to stay perfectly still as Nami, Zoro, and I sat on his back. No doubt he was struggling to keep his grip without letting our added weight on his back drag him down toward the river below. It was the only thing we could think to do to escape from the crowd without possibly fighting them.

"Is it okay now?" Luffy whispered.

"Wait a sec..." Zoro murmured.

"I don't know if he can" I quietly remarked the minute I spotted the strained look on our captain's face.

"Just a little longer..." Nami mumbled, silently listening as the last of the footsteps disappeared. Sighing in relief, Luffy finally released his hold on the bridge which in return sent us falling with a splash into the water below.

"F-fuck, that's cold!" I shivered the second I broke the water's surface and swam to shore. Nami wasn't far behind as she weakly groaned the second she crawled onto the riverbank and flopped onto her back. Zoro was close behind her as he soon came ashore, dragging a soaking wet Luffy behind him. Briefly, we stayed put and quietly discussed our next course of action until we were eventually found by a frantic Chopper. It wasn't long before we finally agreed to take shelter on top of a nearby building's rooftop.

"Looks like the crowd cleared out" Zoro remarked, quick to note just how silent the streets below us had become.

"Yeah, no thanks to you" Nami frowned. "I'll have you know that Luffy and I had a perfectly good hiding place until you led that angry mob straight to us—I bet Skylar was doing just fine as well before you found her" she accused.

"Eh, I was okay before I ran into him" I shrugged, aware that not that many people had really recognized me earlier thanks to my hood being up. I'm sure if I had kept my distance from the swordsman and walked with my head down, I probably could have gone the whole day undetected.

"Like I said, with that many people looking, they were going to find you anyways" Zoro irritably defended.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me—how'd you know we were down there, Chopper?" Luffy curiously asked, recalling just how quick the reindeer had been in finding the three of us despite not having any prior knowledge of our location.