Ameliorate ✦ One Piece

28

Luffy didn't hesitate in bursting through the door of the Baratie, stepping up to the edge of the small host's balcony overlooking the entirety of the restaurant which was eerily quiet despite the number of people inside. "Which one of you is Arlong?" He called out the question, his voice carrying through the silence and making everyone look in the direction of the group as they entered.

"Who's asking?" A voice replied, Akira leaning closer to look down to the main floor of the restaurant, eyes easily catching sight of a man, his nose long and pointed as a swordfish's and a fin protruding from his back. His head turned, focus leaving the man he'd been terrorising until a moment ago as he looked up to Luffy instead.

"I am Monkey D. Luffy." He said without hesitation, turning as he headed down the steps leading down into the restaurant's seating area. "I hear you're looking for me." He said as the rest of his crew followed closely after him.

"Why, yes, I am." Arlong said in a pleased voice as he watched them come down. "So this is the pirate I've heard so much about? You know, I was expecting someone... bigger?" He noted in a mocking tone as he rounded one of the tables, watching Luffy come to a stop a few steps away from the bottom.

"So was I." Luffy smiled back at the fishman who, for just a moment, seemed stunned by the bold reply.

"Do you know who I am, boy?" Arlong questioned in a terse tone. "I'm Arlong the Saw. Even the Marines flee before my flag." He said, trying to frighten them and force them into backing down.

Something Luffy would never give into. "Not ringing a bell." He said with a careless shrug of his shoulders. "How'd you find me, anyway?"

"An old friend helped me track you down." Arlong said simply, a smirk stretching across his face as he glanced back to one of the tables. Akira's eyes turned in the same direction, noticing two more fishmen sitting there as one reached for a bag at his feet.

And what he pulled from the bag made her give out a small groan at the sight of the damn clown. "Heya, Straw Hat! Did you miss me?" Buggy's happy greeting had Akira rolling her eyes.

"Burpy?" Luffy asked in surprise, completely missing the mark on the name and making the clown himself grow annoyed nw. "What are you doing here?"

"Believe me, it wasn't my first choice either." Akira doubted it was because he didn't want to betray them. "But these fine fishy folk persuaded me to point them in the right direction, which ain't easy when you don't have any hands." He was the only one who laughed at the joke, unimpressed looks passing over the faces of others in response.

"How'd you even know how to find me?" Luffy questioned, still confused with the actual lack of an explanation on that matter, not that Akira could blame him. There was no way for Buggy to know where they'd ended up. And if there was something that helped him do it, they needed to know for the future.

"I told you. I've got eyes and ears everywhere." He said in a pointed tone, reminding them of their first meeting just as something popped out from beneath the red band of Luffy's hat, the ear flying back to its owner.

"Oh that just..." Akira's face scrunched up in disgust as she realized what Buggy had done.

"You were listening all along?" Luffy began to realize the answer. "You heard everything?"

"Everything." Buggy exclaimed. "And that got old quick, because you shidiots have no idea what you're doing." If she'd heard it from anyone else, Akira had to admit, she'd probably use the insult in the future. "Hey, Lips, how about a scratch behind the old ear, huh?" Still as annoying with his constant prattling as ever, Buggy now turned as much as he could to look at one of the fishmen sitting behind him.