Free Heart

Ch 40 - I am Not Losing My Sense of Adventure.

"Ah! A dolphin! There's a dolphin!" Luffy cheered.

The pirates were en route to Little Garden and had been sailing for over a day. The sun was high up in the sky while Luffy sat cross legged on top of the figurehead, looking out onto the horizon. He had been sitting there ever since he woke up. It was the first night in awhile that he had slept back in his hammock and it was the first night in years that he had slept out of reaching distance from Emmy.

She had not appeared on deck all morning, which concerned everyone except the navigator and the swordsman. The rest of the crew were informed that Emmy had pulled an all nighter fighting her share of the bounty hunters so it was highly possible that overusing her powers had taken a toll on the girl. Her physical state, however, was less worrisome than her emotional one.

"Dolphin? Where?" Usopp asked excitedly as he rushed over to Luffy to get a look too.

"Over there!" Luffy said and pointed straight ahead, "Oy! Emmy! Come-"

He stopped short when he remembered the first mate's absence. His hand fell back into his lap and the grin left his face. He didn't think he did anything wrong so...why did he feel so terrible? "Usopp," he asked, "Do you think I did a bad thing?"

"What? Bringing Vivi?" Usopp sighed as he leaned over the railing, "I mean, what's done is done, right? It's not like we can bring Vivi back to Whiskey Peak now even if we wanted to."

"Yeah," Luffy said, "But Emmy is really mad at me. I've never seen her like that before."

"Really?" Usopp asked, "You two have never fought? I thought it was common for siblings."

"I fought with my brothers a lot..." Luffy admitted and then tilted his hat over his eyes, "But never with Emmy...Maybe it's different with sisters."

"Brothers?" Usopp asked but Luffy was too lost in his own thoughts to hear the sniper.

He stared out into the glistening waters for a long time, pondering what he should do. Then he turned back to his friend. "Usopp...What did you do when Kaya was mad at you?"

"Eh? Well, Kaya only got mad at me once...When she thought I was lying about Kuro," Usopp said, "So it went away when the misunderstanding got cleared up. Otherwise, we've never had a fight either."

He rubbed his chin and thought long and hard about his captain's problem. "If you want to figure out what's going on with Emmy, you'll need to ask someone who gets into fights with women all the time."

They looked at one another and then gave a firm nod, each of them reaching a conclusion.

"SANJI!" Luffy yelled.

"ZORO!" Usopp cried at the same time.

The swordsman, who had been napping along the railing, opened one eye and glared up at them, just as the cook came storming out of the galley with an apron around his waist and his hands on his hips. "What?" they demanded simultaneously.

"Eh? Why are you asking Sanji?" Usopp asked Luffy, "Zoro's the one who seems to naturally piss off women."

"But Sanji seems to know women better," Luffy pointed out, "And I don't think all of them like whatever it is that he does."

"That's true."

"Oy! What are you two idiots muttering about?" Sanji asked. His curiosity got the better of him and he made his way to the captain and sniper with the swordsman trudging behind him.

"Luffy is just trying to figure out what to do about Emmy," Usopp sighed, "Is she still sleeping?"

Sanji fitted a cigarette to his lips. "No," he said as he lit the tip and took in a drag, "She's in the kitchen with me. She's been in there for an hour now."