Our last sail

23. Strawhat Pirates vs Buggy Pirates

"Luffy": talk

"Sabo": whisper

"ACE": shout

"Gomu Gomu no": the skill's name

'idiot': thinking

<Joyboy>: voice of all things

-Into the story-

The trio had stopped in an alley to catch their breath, hoping those idiot pirates wouldn't chase after them. Suddenly, Nami rushed toward Luffy and hugged him. It caused Luffy and Zoro to surprise, since the girl had clearly shown that she wasn't fond of pirates. After a while, Nami finally let go of him, so Luffy decided to ask

"Nami? Is everything OK?"

"Yeah, I just feel like I need a hug, I don't really know. It's just seeing you makes me feel a little sad. Maybe I feel guilty since you almost died because of me." Nami said with a little confused in her voice.

Just as Nami looked up, Luffy had noticed her tear was ready to fall down. This time, Luffy was sure it had something to do with the previous timeline. Maybe something had triggered her memory. Luffy kept thinking about the matter, while Zoro decided to take a nap, so he could charge up his energy and get ready to fight. Nami didn't know what to do, so she just sat there, looking at them. Suddenly, they all heard a bark beside them which got Luffy a little distracted from his thoughts and looked for the sound which was coming from the little white dog.

"Woahhhh! It's a dog!" Luffy said with his eyes turned into shining stars.

The dog just stood there like a statue looking at him. Luffy slowly approached it, then sat in front of it. The straw hat boy decided to play with the dog a little, so he used his hand to poke it, but the dog still didn't move a single inch. This made Luffy feel amused, he remembered what happened with the little doggy and Luffy was sure that he would never let the same thing happen to the dog's treasure again.

"Ne, doggy! Why are you here?" Luffy asked, ignoring the weird look on Nami.

"Did he seriously just talk to the dog?" Nami asked.

"You don't know about him, so you have no right to judge him" Zoro said coldly, while his eyes still closed.

This got Nami to shiver, she thought the moss head had fallen asleep. But thinking about what Zoro had said, Nami had to admit that it was true, she didn't know anything about either of them. Nami then looked back at Luffy, who was trying to talk to the little doggo.

"So your name is Chouchou?" Luffy asked.

<Yes, it's weird to have someone who can talk to me like this>

"I also felt weird at first, but I think this is more of a gift, don't you think?" Luffy chuckled.

The two of them kept talking until an old man decided to interrupt them.

"What are you trying to do with Chouchou? You three didn't seem to be from this town?"

<Mayor> Chouchou barked

Zoro then decided to sit up and ready his swords in case the old man was a threat. But when Luffy held out his hand and demanded him to stop, Zoro immediately put his swords back. He knew Luffy had a strong intuition and Haki, so if the straw hat said he wasn't a threat, then Zoro would believe his captain.