One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty Two [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Two-

"Whoa! That's huge!" everyone gasped the moment we spotted the gigantic, imposing gates that towered behind Enies Lobby.

"I knew they were going to be huge, but geez..." I mumbled, feeling that such large gates were nothing short of overkill.

"It's not a good idea to open them all the way—when it comes time to send criminals through, they only unlatch them just enough to let them pass" Kokoro explained. "Behind that gate are some big Sea Kings; that part of the sea is a lot like the Calm Belt, an eerie body of water cutting right through the Grand Line. No normal ship would dare to sail there, they'd be lost forever" she continued. "I don't know how they manage to do it, but somehow the Navy figured out a way to make it run safely—in other words, it's like the pirate girls said, you can't take back a criminal once they pass through those gates. Any chance of a rescue mission is going to have to happen before they open.

"Go! Hop to it!" she encouraged. "There's no time to lose!"

"We'll head in and create a path for you just like we planned" Zambai nodded. "Give them hell, Straw Hats" he grinned.

"Hey, you two over there?" Zoro questioned as he pointed toward Nami and Usopp when he saw just how far away they were standing from the rest of us. "Aren't you supposed to be with us?" he asked.

"Come now, did you really think you could get out of fighting with us?" I teasingly asked.

"Wait, where's Luffy?" Chopper curiously asked when he suddenly noticed that the rubber man was nowhere to be found.

"Huh? He was here just a second ago" Nami frowned as she looked around.

"You sure he didn't just move back up to the front of the train?" I asked as Usopp and Zoro exchanged knowing glances before a sort of realization hit us all like a ton of bricks.

"What?!" we shouted.

"Why the hell is he going on his own?!" Paulie snapped.

"That crazy Straw Hat—didn't he understand the plan at all?!" Zambai frowned.

"You know, you would think we would have learned by now that that boy doesn't understand the meaning of the word plan" I said.

"There goes our strategy..." Nami dejectedly muttered as her shoulders slumped downwards.

"There, there" I patted her back.

"He said, "alright, I got it," didn't he?" Sanji grumbled.

"He's really not the wait five minutes type" Sniper King pointed out.

"Damn! Should have known!" Zoro cursed.

It wasn't long after that mess of a realization that the shipwrights and Franky Family left to do as they planned. Despite the captain already going ahead, there was no need for us to stray from our original plan just yet as we waved the group off as they went on ahead.

"Alright, guys, you ready to roll?" Kokoro asked.

"Aren't you hurt?" Zoro curiously asked as he looked towards the long-nosed pirate.

"Don't worry, these wounds matter not to Sniper King!" Sniper King boasted, causing Chopper to stare up at him in utter awe.

"Spoken like a true hero" I smiled.

"Only four minutes left, then the Sea Train—Rocketman—is going to tear through" Kokoro informed us. "Two minutes to go" she counted down as I felt my foot start to nervously tap against the floor while my body began to fidget. I was unable to sit still. Anxiously, my hands would occasionally twitch as if wanting to just hold something comforting...but sadly, Zoro had already taken his place outside near the front of the train as we started drawing closer to the island.