Chapter 53: Set Sail!

I don't own One Piece

..............................................................

Somehow I had gotten separated from Usopp and Nami. I'm not sure when it happened, or how. Though I'm sure they took a wrong turn sometime back. I clearly wasn't lost, since I didn't have anywhere to go.

Of course, when I found myself standing outside an art supply shop I couldn't stop myself from going inside. Unlike the last shop I passed by, this one didn't have the 'no shoes no service' sign hanging up. Why anyone would put such a thing up is beyond me.

"Welcome!" The shop keeper greeted, busy hanging up some paintings. "Special on paints, buy one get one half off!"

"Thanks!" I called back, walking down the aisle. Luckily I had a good amount of money on me, so I wasn't worried about not being able to pay for any supplies. Being a famous artist has its perks.

Subconsciously my tongue poked out the corner of my lips as I looked over the pencils. It never hurt to get some more. Grabbing a few different packs, I walked over to the paint. Since it was on sale it couldn't hurt to get some.

Besides, I think it might be nice to paint a few portrait of the crew. It would be a nice side project for me, and I think it would be cool to hang up in our dinning room.

After selecting a good amount of colors, I walked towards the canvas aisle. Already knowing the size I needed, I grabbed nine then paused before grabbing a tenth.

If Luffy did like the idea, he would give me hell for not painting myself. Or he would become a problem solver and paint me himself. Which while it is sweet, it wouldn't sit well with me after witnessing his art skills.

Once I figured I had grabbed enough, I walked to the counter and set the stuff down. My attention went to the shop keeper, who was making sure the picture they had was straight. Curiosity got the better of me and I peeked around to look at the picture.

Immediately I recognized it. It was the first picture I did once Arisu introduced me. Clearly, this one wasn't the original, as that one was in a art gallery back on Artist Haven, and I could see different brush strokes and a few different details that weren't the same. This one was just a copy, but it thrilled me to see it.

The man hopped down the ladder, clapping his hands as if he was wiping off some dust. With a nod and a toothy grin the man turned around to look at me.

"I apologize for the wait!" He chuckled, glancing back at the picture. "The copy I ordered finally came in. I absolutely love this picture, the artist is fairly new."

I nodded, "Ah, I'm fairly familiar with her."

He started scanning the items. "I heard she was taught by Arisu-sama. I'm sure you know her, every artist that walks in here knows Arisu."

Once again I nodded, a small smirk on my face. "Ah, yeah I definitely know her."

The chime of the door turned my attention away from the shop keeper. I blinked at the green haired woman. Her attention was completely on me, though her eyes were narrowed in annoyance and a scowl was present.

"You little shit, you got lost again, didn't you?" She demanded, walking over to me.

I curled my lip in annoyance. "Eh?"

"Arisu-Arisu-sama..." The man behind the counter stammered with a gasp.

"Your crew should be leaving soon. The marines are completely surrounding the area." She rolled her eyes. "Clearly if you didn't get lost you would have been on that ship by now."

"Oh?" I blinked, my annoyance leaving my face.

"And I noticed a talking animal running around with three other guys demanding to find you." She rose an eyebrow, "I'm correct to assume that's your crew?"

My eyes widened, "Ah, Chopper!" Turning around, I slammed a good amount of money on the counter and grabbed the shopping bags full of supplies. "Thanks!" I smiled at the man who looked ready to pass out upon looking at Arisu and I.

Turning to Arisu I grinned, "Point me in the direction they went!"

She scoffed, rolling her eyes at me. "I'll bring you in the direction. You'll only get lost." Then she grabbed my arms and tugged me out of the shop.

"You make me sound like a hopeless case." I frowned, keeping up with her as she chased after a large bird.

"With directions you are. I can't blame Mamoru either, you're just directionally stupid." She shrugged, her eyes landing on the marines that were chasing after us now. "Your picture was in the newspaper this morning. Those reporters quickly put together that Mitsu is Katsu."

A gleeful giggle bubbled through me. "Yosh! Now they know the Straw Hats are back and healthy! And they have famous people in the crew! Brook and I."

"The Straw Hats are pretty famous themselves. Also, don't count of me covering your bar tap again." Arisu rolled her eyes. Then she shoved me forward, my eyes locking onto my ship. "Go on, you brat, I'll hold them off."

I paused to look at Arisu, who was scowling at me. With a big smile, I bowed to the woman. "Thank you! Arisu-sama! And thank you for being the aunt I always wanted." When I turned back up I could see a big smile on her face. As I turned I could just faintly see her arms turning black.

"Where's Katsu?!"

"We couldn't find her!"

I giggled, glancing as four figures dropped from a giant bird. Lifting one arm in the air, I waved at the crew. "Oi! I'm right here!"

Immediately they ran to the side to look at me. Sanji not included. At the sight of me they grinned and cheered.

"Katsu!" Luffy and Chopper cheered.

A loud boom echoed being me and I could see my crew look up with gaping mouths. I didn't need to turn around to see what they were gaping at, since I knew quite well. Instead I made a few hops onto solid air and landed on the ship.

"Who's that lady?" Usopp demanded, "Are we gonna have to fight her too?!"

Zoro was quick to pull a sword with a grin on his face. He paused when I placed my hand on top of his head, which had me stretching. His grin fell as he looked at me in confusion. "What, number two?"

I didn't turn to look at Sanji jumped up. Though I wanted to ask about the large amount of blood. "How dare you-!"

"Ah, Number One, she's on our side." I smiled at Zoro. "She's actually Mamoru's sister, and she helped train me the past two years."

He hummed in response, and sighed dropping his hand. Then he leaned a little closer. "Chopper is six, Brook seven, Luffy ten, and Shitty Cook eight."

I snickered then winked, "Got it, Number One."

Then I turned around to Sanji, who was glaring at Zoro. I blinked, tilting my head as I looked at Sanji, then nodded in appreciation.

"My god, Number eight!" I shouted, pointing at Sanji. "You're hot as hell now!"

Sanji froze, then looked at me. His eyes widened into hearts before he flew back with a massive nosebleed. "KATSSUUU!" He cried gleefully, lying on the floor covered in blood.

Zoro frowned at the chef, "Pathetic."

"Super effective." I whispered to myself  as I blinked. "I hardly did anything though." Then I turned on my heel and launched myself at Robin, whom I admit I missed the most.

"Robin!" I grinned, hugging the woman who was smiling widely at me. "I missed you!"

She chuckled, looking me over. "Katsu-chan, I see you've changed quite a bit."

Our reunion was cut short as we heard cannon fire. Turning to the open ocean, I blinked at the ship that blocked the warship.

Robin, Nami,and I walked closer to the railing to get a better look. "That's the insignia of the Kuja."

Nami and I looked at Robin and asked. "The Kuja?"

"They're a band of female pirates led by the mighty pirate empress, one of the seven warlords." Robin explained.

I glanced over as Sanji stood back up and looked towards the ship with the warlord. He held up a telescope to get a better view of the ship. I swore he turned to stone.

"Eh?" I blinked, tapping my knuckles against Sanji. "Holy shit, Number Eight turned to stone."

"Hey! That's Handcock!" Luffy shouted, looked at the ship with a smile.

"Woo! She winked at us!" Brook fell to the ground clutching his chest.

"I have a feeling she wasn't winking at 'us'." I muttered, smirking at Brook on the floor.

"Great! Now's our chance to set sail!" Luffy looked towards Nami.

"Wait! You know that Warlord?!" Nami blinked staring at Luffy with wide eyes.

"Yup." Luffy nodded matter-of-factually. "I ended up on the island of women. They're all my friends now."

I smiled at Luffy. Of course he would make friends with the whole island. My attention shot to Sanji, who was no longer stone. Instead it appeared he was surrounded by fire.

"You're really hot now." I snickered to myself.

"The empress is his friend?!" Sanji growled, turning to look at Luffy. Tears streaming down his face as he lunged at Luffy and held him by his red jacket. "You'd better have actually been training during those two years!!"

Luffy smiled, completely unaffected by Sanji. "I was. It went great!"

"You!" Sanji cried angrily. "You know what I had to go through?!"

I blinked, wrinkling my nose as I leaned towards Zoro. "Eh? What do you think happened to Number Eight, Number One?"

Zoro shrugged from beside me, not appearing impressed with Sanji. "Who knows? Probably something stupid that he's over reacting over."

Our conversation stopped when the jelly coating the ship started to inflate around us. A big grin lit up my face as the bubble went over me. We were inside the bubble now.

"Wow!" Chopper cheered in wonder. "We're inside a big bubble!"

I giggled spinning slowly to get every detail of the bubble. "Oh, this is gonna be so cool to draw later." I paused to look at Zoro, who was staring at the bubble silently. A smirk formed on my face as I nudged him to gain his attention. Upon seeing my smirk I noticed he looked at me more guarded. "Ne, Number One, can I draw you later too?I wanna get all those muscles in detail."

"Tch." His eye widened as he adverted his gaze, pink dusting his cheeks. "Number Two, stop talking like that."

I snickered, "Ah, but really, I'll need you to show me a pose you'd like me to paint later. Since you've changed so much I gotta make sure I get all the details of your pose. I will need everyone to do that too."

He glanced at me from the corner of his eye. "Any pose I chose?"

I nodded, "Yup."

"Oof!" My attention quickly went to Sanji, who fell to the floor as if he had been wounded.

"What's wrong, Sanji?!" Chopper demanded, running to the chef.

"I.... I don't know." He muttered, holding his chest. "It felt like somebody just tried to rip out my heart."

I frowned, he's been acting weird since he got back. Between the nosebleeds, not being able to handle conversation with any of us females, and now that.

"Listen everyone!" I turned to look at Nami. "A coated ship is less susceptible to several different kinds of pressure. In other words, coated ships have very little buoyancy." I nodded silently, she continued. "If we removed the buoyancy pouch supporting us, we'd sink."

I knew this much. Rayleigh had explained to me when I was younger about coating ships. I found that much interesting, though any navigation he tried to teach me went out the window. Much like when Mamoru had tried to teach me, much to their annoyance.

Zero and Luffy nodded blankly. "I see." They responded, which made me respond with a snort as I tried to keep in my laughter.

"Right. I knew you wouldn't get it." Nami sighed at the two men.

Franky climbed back onto the ship, dripping wet from being under water. "I just removed the buoyancy pouch!"

"All right!" Nami pointed towards us. "We're going to submerge! Everyone man the sails!"

"The sails?" Brook and Chopper exclaimed in wonder.

"A coated ship is propelled by Ocean currents instead of the wind." Robin quickly explained. 

"I thought we'd get there automatically once we went under!" Usopp shouted, his mouth gaping in shock.

I grinned, slapping my hand on his shoulder. "Ah, we gotta go through a bunch of sea kings first.-" I blinked, my and tensing on his shoulder. "Eh? Your muscles are well defined now!"

"Stop that!" Usopp shouted, backing away from me. "You can't just talk about sea kings then go onto me like that!"

"All right guys!" Our attention went to Luffy, who was addressing us now. "There's a whole lot of stuff I'd like to say to you! But nevermind! I just want to tank you for going along with my selfish request for the last two years!"

I smiled at Luffy. "Anytime, Captain."

"It won't be the first time or the last." Sanji chuckled.

"You got that right!" Usopp laughed, "But you've always been like that!"

Luffy grinned, then held back his head and lifted his arms over his head. "Set sail! Let's go to Fishman Island!"

Then onto the New World, where a whole mess will wait for us.

.......................................................

End of Chapter 53!

I'm back! Sorry for the wait guys! However if you noticed I published two chapters, so please accept that as my apology.... even though one of them is a Christmas special...

So I've been writing Katsu's Arch. It's looking fairly long, I'm about 15 or so chapters into that. Granted it will be a while until you guys get to read about it, since I don't think it'll be until way later on. But I'm quite excited for it!

On another note, here's a picture of Katsu and Makoto! For some reason I just couldn't get Katsu right on the picture so she looks a little weird...


This is not edited.







Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top