One Piece (Love Story) [Part Two]

Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty Eight [Rewritten]

-Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Eight-

"Ah! It's moving!" Nami gasped.

"No matter where in the world these scraps of paper are, they're drawn to each other" Lola explained. "So as long as I have this, I know what direction Mama is in—it doesn't tell you the distance though, I'm afraid" she quickly clarified.

"Whoa! That's so neat!" Chopper sparkled. "I bet there's a bunch of crazy stuff like that in the New World, huh?!" he eagerly questioned.

"Well, I don't know about crazy, but it certainly is handy" Lola smiled. "Anyways, I'm signing a piece of my mama's Vivre Card, so if you're ever in trouble, you can use it to find her and she'll help you out" she told us as she signed the piece of paper before handing it back to Nami. "If that ever happens, be sure to tell her I'm doing fine, okay?" she asked.

"Wow! Thanks, Lola!" Nami brightly smiled.

"Hey, hold on, don't I have one of those already?" Luffy curiously asked.

"Huh? I almost forgot, but Ace gave you something like this a long time ago—you remember that, right?" Nami asked.

"That's right" I nodded. "Back in Alabasta, he gave you a piece of paper" I recalled, vaguely remembering Ace's departure from the rest of us back in Alabasta.

"So that's what it was" Luffy said, pulling out said piece of paper from his hat...only to reveal that it was slowly starting to burn and disintegrate to ash. "This is it, but...huh? That's weird, I thought you said these things couldn't burn?" he frowned.

"Are you kidding? Let me see that!" Lola gasped as she quickly snatched the piece of paper from Luffy and held it up to get a closer look. "This is definitely a Vivre Card, but there's something I neglected to tell you before—the life force of the owner is also reflected on the paper" she explained. "Does this belong to someone close to you?" she worriedly asked.

"Yeah, it's my big brother's" Luffy smiled.

"Lola?" Nami questioned the moment she saw how the woman was worriedly staring down at the burning piece of paper as if she was lost in thought and was having trouble gathering up her words.

"I'm sorry to say this, but your brother's in terrible danger right now" Lola finally said.

It wasn't long before we were gathered around on the deck of the Sunny as the gates of Thriller Bark were slowly pushed open to allow us to finally leave. I couldn't help but smile as we started to sail away, my head tilting back just a little as I enjoyed the warmth of the sun that bathed over us.

"What? Still mad about earlier?" I teasingly asked the glaring swordsman beside me, softly laughing the moment he huffed before smiling as I lightly bumped my hip against his own.

"Bye!" we waved as we bid Lola and the rest of them farewell.

"See ya! Good Luck!" Luffy called back to the group.

"We owe you our lives! We won't forget what you've done, Straw Hat!" one of the men shouted back.

"Thank you for giving us the sun!" another cried.

"Take care—don't get annihilated out there! That would be very bad!" Brook laughed.

"Why would you even say that?! Are you out of your mind?!" Usopp snapped.

"I don't know, I think it's pretty good advice if you ask me" I chuckled.

"Bye, Lola—and thanks for the Vivre Card! I'll miss you!" Nami waved.

"I hope we meet again someday! If you see my mama, tell her I said hi, Namizo!" Lola happily waved right back, bringing a smile to my lips.

"Set sail!" Luffy grinned as we sailed further away from Thriller Bark and onwards towards our next destination.