44~ Pirates of the Desert

Mira

Well, we lost them. The girls took off and they got out of sight. We had to continue on without them and hope we were going the right way. It looks like we could be going the right way, but the dancing lines on the sand above us might be tricking us.

"So hooot..." Luffy groaned from behind. "I need water..."

"This heat is too much for me..." Chopper panted. "Thanks again for doing this, Zoro."

"Don't act polite," He grunted as we started up another tall sand dune, Sanji in the lead. "It's stifling out here."

"I can get off," I offered.

"No, stay on for now." He held my legs tighter with his other hand. "I don't mind."

"Nami-san!" Sanji called out for her. "How far did you go?! This side of you is wonderful, too." I thunked my head on Zoro's shoulder.

"He's such an idiot..."

"Tell me about it," Zoro whispered back.

"What's the matter, Luffy?" Usopp suddenly asked. I turned around a bit to see Luffy had stopped. I patted Zoro's head to get his attention.

"Tsunami!" He cried out and threw his hands in the air.

"What?" Usopp tilted his head at our captain.

"A tsunami is coming!"

"What's going on, Luffy?" Zoro asked.

Usopp sighed. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all?"

Chopper sat up a bit as our captain continued to scream about a tsunami and running in circles. "What wasn't a good idea?"

"I told him not to," Usopp shook his head. "But he said he was so thirsty, he couldn't stand it. So, he chomped down on some cactus back there."

"Cactus?! I forgot to warn him! Is what Vivi would have said." I sighed and leaned more into Zoro. "I never got that list from her... Cactus was probably on it."

"It was those round things. Over there." Usopp pointed to some half eaten green plants laying on the ground.

"Those are bad!" Chopper jumped to his feet. "Those are mezcal cacti! They're used to make hallucination drugs!"

"Boom. Called it."

"Now's not the time for that, Mira!"

I gave a half shrug. "But I was right. Just another thing we didn't get warned about. Now our captain is high."

"AAAHHH!! Oh no! We're all gonna drown!" Luffy pointed in a direction and just kept screaming. "Alright! Bring it on, if you dare! I'll beat all of you up!" His eyes changed as he grabbed Chopper's sled and started swinging it. Chopper squeaked and hid backwards behind Zoro's leg.

My eyes widened as he seemed to go ballistic and smash the sled. We all took a step back as my fingers dug into Zoro's shoulders. "He's gone mad! Someone restrain him! Usopp!"

"I'm not going in there!" He shrieked.

"This is bad!" Zoro's hands hovered over his swords.

"GOMU-GOMU no..."

"Sanji, Usopp! Take three steps to your right! Zoro, Chopper, four steps to the-"

"Tranquilizer!" Chopper exclaimed happily as he held up a large syringe.

"Where were you keeping that?!"

My question got ignored. "Way to go, Chopper!" Sanji gave him a thumbs up.

I sighed in relief. "Well, now that he's out, we can take better care of him. Hey Ace, do you mind- Huh? Hey, where's Ace?"

"Crap! We lost him, too?!" Usopp began to panic. "We won't have Big Bro's protection! We're defenseless!"

"Oi," Sanji and Zoro sounded a bit insulted.

"He probably caught up with Nami and Vivi," I stated. "They could be waiting for us. For now, let's gather up Luffy and get going again."

Zoro grabbed Luffy by his ankle and began dragging him.

"Damn, we're completely separated from them now," Usopp grumbled as he scanned the horizon.

"And their footprints are disappearing." Sanji pointed out as I stretched my neck.

"Huh. I thought you were just using your Nami radar."

"If he had that, we'd have found them sooner!"

"Yeesh, calm down, Usopp. It was just a joke." I pouted. "He takes my jokes too seriously sometimes..."

"When do you think Ace got separated from us?" Usopp asked, ignoring me.

"Well, he did have his head down a lot," I tapped my chin. "Maybe he made a wrong turn."

"Yeah, he probably got separated from us." They stopped walking and slowly turned. I don't know about the others, but I know I was glaring at Luffy. "Sheesh! What a troublesome big brother!"

I jumped off Zoro as he, Sanji, and Usopp ganged up on him. "We're the ones that got separated!"

I stood beside Chopper and sighed. "This heat is seriously stressing us out. Water?"

"Sure," I tipped a little bit in his mouth before I took a swig myself. I tucked it away once we had our fill.

They all stepped away, Usopp glancing around. "Hey, do you guys hear that?" I let my hood down a bit and twitched my ears. A rumbling sound came from just over a dune to our left. Usopp scrambled up it to get a better look.

We walked up beside him to find the mysterious noise, but nothing was around. Then we spotted it. A large ship with an equally large umbrella at the front was cutting through the sand with ease.

"A pirate ship?!" The guys exclaimed as I quickly hid my ears.

Usopp pulled his goggles down. "Ah! It's the girls! Nami and Vivi have been caught! Oh, and the camel."

"What?!"

"We gotta go get them!" I started sliding down the dune.

"Mira, wait! We don't know how dangerous they are!" Usopp warned me.

I looked over my shoulder to him. "Yet another reason why we need to get them back!"

"Raaaaaaaaaaah!!" And there goes Luffy.

"Damn it, Luffy! Don't be so brash!" Usopp shouted to him.

"Let's go, too!" The rest of them raced down the dune after him. I knew Luffy was going to run of at some point at the news, so I simply tried to speed up the inevitable. It worked.

Luffy slung his arm back. "Gomu-Gomu no... Give-Me-Water!" Well, that's an interesting move. His arm wrapped around the mast and he was set flying towards the ship.

I deadpanned. "Ah, so he only wanted the water, not to save the girls."

Luffy crashed into the mast and cracked it. It began to fall over as the crew began to cry out and question how it happened.

"Come guys," I sighed and continued on. "That was probably all Luffy had. We gotta go save him and the girls."

"Right..." They met up with me so we could get to the ship.

We jumped up to see Luffy surrounded by the pirates, Nami, Vivi, and Lashes tied to the mast.

"I'll even eat things off the ground!" Wait, what did we just walk in to?

"That'll make you sick," A large man with a rounded purple umbrella strapped to his head said.

"Then I'll be careful." Okay, I'm confused.

The man started laughing. "You're a funny pipsqueak! Hm? Who are these guys?"

"My friends!" Luffy beamed. "And so are those guys!" He pointed to the ones tied up. "Well, let's eat!" He pointed to Lashes, who began to cry.

"Like hell you will!" Nami snapped as she kicked his head.

"Oh, friends you say?" He ordered his crew to untie them. "I'm Barbarossa, captain of the Barbar Sand Pirates! Luffy, was it? I'm sorry for the way we mistreated your friends. It's just that we're all so hungry."

Luffy laughed it off. "No, I don't mind!"

Nami punched his head hard, making him an accordion. "That's enough for you to say!"

"Wait, sand pirates?" I stared at them in confusion. "Does that mean you have sand, like, everywhere?"

One of the crew members shook his leg, a small pile of sand landing beside him. "We don't know what you're talking about."

Barbarossa laughed at my question. "No, that just means we sail the sand instead of the sea!"

"Captain!" One of the crew members ran up to him. "We don't have any wood at all to repair our main mast! Without the main mast, we don't have enough thrust!"

"Yeah! What're we gonna do!" The others cried out.

"If we don't do something, we could die like dogs out here." The one who brought up the news stared sadly at their captain.

The crew began to cry and hold on to each other. "We're all gonna die like dogs!"

"The Barbar Sand Pirates are gonna die!" I stood awkwardly at their tearful outburst.

"We sand pirates are born in sand pirate ships," Barbarossa claimed their attention. "And we will die in sand pirate ships! Abandoning our ship is unthinkable!"

The mood suddenly shifted among the crew. "That's right! We'll die on our ship! We'll die like dogs on our ship!" I'm so confused...

"That was fate, this is fate!" Barbarossa grinned. "We sand pirates will never do anything to defy the flow of sand! However, there is timber at the Meriyasu Oasis."

"Where is it?" Luffy got to his feet. "I can get it for you!"

Barbarossa scanned the land. "The sands have changed lately. It'll be dangerous for outsiders."

"I'm responsible for it! I'll do it!" He insisted.

Barbarossa laughed and turned back to Luffy. "Yeah? You will? Prepare the sled!" A couple of the crew members got to work getting the sled ready for Luffy.

He, Vivi and Barbarossa waited on the ground for the sled to be unhooked from the ropes. "Use this sand-sled to bring back wood."

"Looks more like a canoe than a sled, if you ask me." Luffy said as I leaned over the railing.

"Zaba and Rasa will show you the way to the Mariyasu Oasis." Barbarossa gestured to the man who informed us about the lack of lumber.

"Rasa is our finest sand-sledder." Rasa gave a small salute to Luffy. "A sand-sled can carry two people. What'll you do?"

Luffy grinned confidently. "I'll be fine on my own!"

"Famous last words." I sighed.

"Come on!" Usopp called down to Luffy. "Stop saying such baseless things like that!"

"It'll probably be demanding work. Want me to go with you?" Sanji offered.

Before Luffy could answer, a wickedly shaped knife came out of nowhere and nearly impaled Vivi as she was looking over the sled. Thankfully, she had moved out of the way in time. I jumped down beside her, katana ready.

A woman stood on the broken part of the mast, glaring down at us. I glared back at her as she jumped down and flipped. She landed just on the other side of Vivi and stood tall and proud.

"That was so cool, Rasa!" One of the crew members called down to her as her umbrella pinned in her hair popped open.

"The others seem to be outsiders, but you're from here." She spoke directly to Vivi.

I got between the two of them, giving a silent warning to this Rasa chick. She pulled her weapon from the side of the ship.

Luffy spoke up, breaking the tension. "Wow! How could she tell?"

Rasa ignored him. "You must have some experience with a sand-sled." She paced over to the vehicle. "You will come along."

"Vivi-chan can't do anything that dangerous!" Sanji protested.

"Yeah, that's right!" Nami narrowed her eyes at Rasa.

"So I suggest you back off." I took a small step towards Rasa, katana ready.

"Alright," Vivi walked around me. "I'll go with you."

"I'm sorry, what?"

Rasa smirked. "Good. We leave in five minutes."

"Let's get the sand-sled ready, Luffy." Vivi waved him over.

I crossed my arms as Vivi tried to teach Luffy how to set the sled up. "I don't trust that Rasa girl. She screams bad news."

"This goes like this, right?" Luffy pulled on some rope just as the wind picked up. It blew into the sail and off he went into the distance.

".... That was funny." I pointed towards the direction he went.

Two seconds later, he came rushing back, sail closed and pushing the sled. "I-I'm back..." He panted angrily.

"Don't waste your strength doing stupid things!" Nami, Sanji, and Usopp yelled at him as he collapsed.

"But ya gotta admit, that was funny."

"Not the point!" They snapped at me.

Vivi climbed into the sled and prepared it herself. Luffy was practically thrown in by Sanji. "You can rest there, Luffy-san." She assured him as she tugged on the rope a bit. "Now let's see. This goes like this, I believe, and- YAAAAAAH!" Off she went, just like Luffy.

I held back a snicker. "It's funny, because she's supposed to be the 'experienced' one."

Rasa tsked. "Let's go, Zaba."

"Yeah," Rasa tugged on the ropes and they took off a lot more smoothly than the other two. We watched them leave until they were out of sight.

"So, now what?" I asked allowed.

"Now we wait," Barbarossa said as he climbed back onto the ship.

"How long will it take?" We followed up after him.

"Who knows?" He shrugged. "Shouldn't be too long. Hey, wanna eat the camel?"

"Yay! Yay! Yay!" The crew cheered above us.

Usopp and Sanji raised their hands. "I'm all for it!"

Barbarossa laughed. "I was just joking!"

"Awww..." The crew groaned.

"Doesn't sound like a joke to me." Nami grumbled.

I walked up to a random crew member and held my fist out. "Uuhh... what do you want me to do?"

I shook my fist once. "Jan."

"Oh!"

"Ken! Pon! I win!" I flicked his forehead, only to receive an smack to the back of my head.

"Not this again!" Nami scolded me.

"That hurt, you meanie!" I pouted. "Zoro, she hit me!"

"I'm not getting involved."

"Jerk!"

"Hey," We looked up to Barbarossa. "You sure we can count on him to get the lumber?"

Nami smirked. "Despite how he seems, you can always count on Luffy in a pinch!"

"Yeah," He nodded. "But what concerns me is the desert's fickleness."

"Fickleness?" Nami asked.

"Yeah," While those two spoke, I turned back to the crew member again.

"Ready?" I whispered. "Jan! Ken! Pon!" *flick*

"Ouch!" He whisper yelled.

"Mira, she said stop." Zoro called to me.

I slumped and walked over to him. " 'Kay... you never let me have any fun." I thumped my head into his chest.

"Now what're you doing?" He placed a hand on my head.

"Getting shade." I replied.

"Silly kitten." I blushed and started to purr as he reached under my hood and started scratching my ear. Why would he call me that?

"Hey, what's that?" I heard one of the crew members ask from above us. I stood a bit and saw rising dust in the distance. Is it another sandstorm?

"Boss, it's them!" Them? I looked harder and spotted figures slowly getting closer to us. They rode camels and brandished swords.

"Turn to starboard! Hurry!"

"Battle stations!" The figures nearly had us surrounded as they advanced.

"There's so many of them!" Usopp gripped the railing.

"Who are they?!" Nami turned to Barbarossa.

"Desert bandits!" He growled. "Pests who're always trying to mess with us! Conflict seems imminent these days! That has them on edge, too! Men! Don't let a single one of them leave alive today!" He stood on the railing and threw his arms out.

The crew cheered and aimed rifles at the enemies. Zoro and I prepared our katanas for the ones who would slip through.

"What is this, a pub?"

"Usopp, if you're not gonna fight, I suggest you find a place to hide." I said as men rushed around to defend their ship.

"I can fight!"

"You sure?"

"Yes!"

"Your knees are shaking."

"Are not!" He slapped them. "See!?"

"The desert has pit us together!" Barbarossa shouted over us. "Will the desert choose us, the Barbar Pirates, or you?! Let the desert decide our fate in battle!"

"Fool! Fool!" One of the bandits called back. "The desert will never choose you!" As he said that, a round object appeared on the rim of one of the sand dunes.

"A Grand Dung Beetle! There's a Grand Dung Beetle here!"

"Oh no! I forgot to warn you guys!" I whispered for Vivi.

"Grand Dung beetle?" Sanji came up from below deck.

"Say what now?" Zoro stared at the object.

"They're desert bugs that haul giant balls of dung!" Barbarossa explained.

"How big we talking?" I asked as the dung began to rock a bit on the edge. "It can't be that big."

He turned back to me. "No less than one hundred people a year are squished by their rolling dung!"

"Oh, ew!" I cried out as it tipped over the edge and began rolling for us. Two people already got caught in the ball of dung as it barreled towards us.

"Boss! It's heading right for the ship!"

"Can't we do something?!" I gripped the railing. "I'd like to not become one of those squished people!"

Barbarossa suddenly jumped off the ship. "Leave it to me!" He rushed right for it.

I felt a bit of bile rise in my throat. "Please tell me he's not gonna stop it with his bare hands..." Unfortunately, he did. It slowed only for a moment before he, too, became consumed by the dung ball.

"I hope the ship has a shower for his sake," I said as Zoro jumped into action. He sliced the dung into several pieces that landed away from the ship. Whatever big pieces he missed, Sanji kicked them into smaller bits.

"You guys might need some alcohol." I called down to Zoro as Sanji scraped his foot on the railing.

"Huh? What for?" Zoro looked up to me.

"That's pure shit from multiple animals." I said. "That's worse than that man's booger you sliced."

"Gah! That's gross!" Zoro held his blade away from his body with two fingers.

"Thanks, guests..." Barbarossa weakly said as I found a bottle of booze for Zoro.

"We'll let you off easy this time!" I looked back up from Zoro pouring the bottle over his blade to the bandits. They had stopped their advance. "Your lives are spared for now!" They all raced off back over the sand dune.

Usopp deadpanned at their retreat. "That deserves a warm shower of applause."

"Heh, I get it." I took the empty bottle from Zoro as he dried off his blade, still grumbling.

A while after the... weird events that transpired, the sun began to set. The two groups that had taken off hadn't returned yet, and I was getting a bit worried. I tried occupying myself by having a secret Jan Ken Pon tournament near the back of the ship. I could hear bits and pieces of conversations between Nami and Barbarossa. They talked about what had happened earlier, Barbarossa mentioning how he would have liked to have gotten the bandit's food and water supply. He also began to mention the sands and the possibilities of them belonging to anyone, if at all.

I sighed and focused back on the game before me. I have one win and one loss. If I can beat this guy, I can get to the top bracket and compete for ultimate champion. I think the crew like this distraction, even if it's only for a short while. They don't have to worry about whether or not a bandit will attack, or if a sandstorm is going to blow in and wreck their ship. I think I introduced them to a nice pass time.

A pass time that I'm legitimately worried about. I've decided to not cheat and use my abilities. Turns out, I suck at this when I don't know what the other person is going to do. I'm sweating, and it's not just from the heat.

I took a deep breath and met my opponent's gaze. "Ready?"

He nodded. "Ready."

"Jan! Ken! Pon! Success! *flick*"

"Damn it!" The guy held his forehead. I threw my hands up in victory and joined the rest of the guys competing for champion. I sat down with my opponent, fist extended and ready. He smirked and started the count.

One loss.

I licked my lips and met his gaze again. The count started again.

Tie.

I started the count this time. One win.

Tie.

Another tie.

I bit the inside of my lip, getting nervous. The other two already finished their match, the one who won having not received a single loss the entire tournament. If I win this, I'll have to go against him. Bragging rights are on the line.

I started the count down.

"Yes! *flick*"

"Ack! Ya got me..." The man held his forehead. "That got intense. Good luck."

I stood and sat in front of my last opponent, the one standing between me becoming a champion or not.

"Nervous?" He asked as he readied his fist.

"Not in the slightest." I lied as I readied mine.

"Why don't ya start us off?"

"Fine. Jan! Ken! Pon!" I grimaced. A loss, and a flick to the forehead.

He counted it this time. Tie, as were the next two.

Finally, I got a win, stunning him for a second as he registered that. He quickly snapped out of it and grinned.

Two more ties followed before a presence came from behind me. I ignored it as best I could as I counted down. The man faltered, and I got my win. "AHA! Victory is mine!" I landed a solid flick to his forehead and stood to do a victory dance.

Only to run into a chest. "How many times have we told you to stop?"

I pouted and looked away, poking my index fingers together. "A lot..."

Zoro sighed heavily and grabbed me by the back of my clothes. "Honestly, I look away for two seconds..." And I was carried back to the group.

I was plopped down beside Nami, who held the side of her head and sighed. "I know you're trying to lighten the place up, but we told you to stop several times. At least with the flicking. Is it necessary?"

"Yes." I crossed my arms and looked away. "At least, that's how I've always seen it played."

"Well, no more, okay?"

"Okay..."

"OUCH!" 

I flinched at the shout that came from the other side of the ship. "However, I don't speak for them." That got her to giggle.

"There it is!" A familiar voice shouted in the distance. "We made it!" 

"Luffy!" I stood and ran to the railing as they crested the sand dune. "You're finally back!" The gliders flew across the sand back towards the ship, Luffy laughing the entire time. A huge haul of logs were attached to the glider. Hopefully that's enough for the repairs needed.

Repairs quickly went underway before the sun could completely set. We all had a part in fixing the ship (Nami mainly giving orders) and getting it back into sailing shape.

A small feast was held afterwards, and a thought occurred to me. When was the last time we saw Ace?