The fifth day since leaving drum island, the ship torturously continues on to Alabasta.

"Luffy! I thought I told you not to eat the bait!!" Usopp snapped at his captain who has ate the bait which was supposed to for catching the fishes. "If we don't have any bait, we can't catch anything!!"

"But you ate some."

"I only ate the stuff on the bottom of the lid!!"

A smooth sailing, really.

Alice after independently deciding that she will help Sanji and clean the storage room for restocking, walked down the deck, mildy enjoying how her brother and Usopp had tied Karoo as a bait before getting yelled at by Vivi. Letting out a mocking laugh at she walked away. She might or might not have got yelled by Usopp for laughing at them.

Opening the door, she as hit with the rotting stench of fruits. With her now dull senses, she ignored it and started to sort them through from good and bad, which wasn't that much because the only 'good' which was left were hardened bread.

She sweat dropped, 'Wow, we are poor', She thought before starting to push the boxes apart and clean the floor. Someone knocked on the door making her halt and turn her head back.

"Come in,"

Sanji popped his head inside and smiled at her.

"Hello there, little one. Busy?"

She smiled politely and nodded, turning back to cleaning the floor with the now dirty rag. "Cleaning to restock. This place stinks!" She exclaimed, cringing at the smell of the rag. Sanji chuckled and crouched beside her. "That was kind of you, I actually came here to do that myself. Thank you, love," He appreciated her work and ruffled her hair which was in a bun.

"Your welcome. You don't have to do this, you know? I'll ask others to help up next time." She suggested and beamed at him sweetly making him smile while squealing internally.

Gosh, so adorable!!

"Oh, we only have hard bread left, maybe we can use that before we reach. I'm sure everyone is hungry." She told making him nod. "That was all that was left?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Dang, that Luffy. Selfish bastard!"

"Ahaha! Luffy was always like this." She laughed it off unlike Sanji who was still upset over Luffy's abnormal appetite's consequences.

"I sometimes wonder how you survived with a person whose appetite takes up for 10 people."

They continued talking and cleaning up for a while, ignoring all the yelling and thuds, knowing all too well that it wasn't that important anyway.

"Guess that was it," Alice huffed with furrowed brows, watching as Sanji picked up the rag with two fingers and covering his nose and held it away from himself. "Ugh! This is disgusting!!"

"Tell me about it. That is worse then a sock used for a year mixed with rotten fruit!"

"Weirdly accurate description."

When they walked out covered in disgusting smell, they maintained their distance with the crew who appeared to arguing. Alice pointed towards the ship to Sanji, which was sailing a little further from their own ship.

"Well, that's weird." Sanji commented and took out a cigar but stuffed it back inside when Alice eyed it, placing a hand on her head. She smiled and held his hand because...well, because she wanted to.

"Sanji! Alice!" Vivi called out once she noticed the two, making everyone turn to them. Chopper grinned happily and ran towards Alice but stopped at the stench.

"What's that smell??!" He held his nose and waddled towards her painfully slow. Sanji sweat dropped.

"Well, we were cleaning..." Sanji started. "And the rotten fruits were magnificent!!" Alice completed with a laugh.

Everyone covered their nose, now being able to smell the foul-ness in the air.

"Ugh!!"

"Yuck! This is disgusting!!"

"Hughhug!!! I think I'll throw up..."

"Take a fucking bath!!"

"There were fruits...?"

Chopper with tears rolling down his face, a hand on his nose and touched Alice's knee to let her know he doesn't mind the stench and so she isn't uncomfortable with the reaction.

"it's okay....it's fine. I'm alright!" Alice laughed at him and looked at Sanji, enjoying the way they were torturing the crew.

•°•°•°•°•°•

Alice came out the bathroom, wearing a black tank top from Nami and jeans of Vivi, looking fresh and no more smelling like shit.

She sat down in the galley with her hair still wet, so Vivi took over to dry it off.

The crew explained what happened making the two crew member blink and shared an astonished look.

"So, you all weren't having pointless fight.....well at least me and Sanji are at advantage. He didn't see or touch us." Alice commented, making Sanji nod in aggreement.

"It is a relief to know," Vivi presumed, holding the towel in her hand. Chopper grinned. "I think it's a good thing that Bon clay didn't touch them, maybe we can use that to our advantage right? Sanji doesn't have a wanted bounty, they can't recognise him."

"Oh, right, Sanji is at a bigger advantage than Alice is. You think they'll recognise you? I mean you didn't come to grand line before..." Usopp questioned making her hum in wonder.

"I'm not sure about that, the baroque works knew me and Zoro when we were fighting them, I think crocodile will know me...." She said before widening her eyes. "Wait! Nami, you said the bird drew your pictures right? He didn't drew mine, I was busy fighting Nico Robin! Maybe I am still in the game!"

Nami blinked before hitting her fist on her palm. "Oh, you're right! Then we have make sure you aren't spotted by baroque works with us."

Zoro yawned, "Can we just get this over with?" Everyone turned to him, glaring except for the two siblings and Chopper. "He saw us, not those two, I get it. Can we leave? This isn't something to be discussed, as if it will ruin everything. We shouldn't really be discussing it too deeply like it's the end."

"Zoro's right, if someone hurts Alice or Sanji, I'll kick those people's ass!" Exclaimed Luffy causing many to sign in dismay.

Everyone agreed and decided to return to whatever they were doing before 'Bon Clay' came. Sanji and Alice decided to make a toast out of the hard bread, trying to make use of it somehow.

"We could use some spices and cheese," Alice uttered to which Sanji nodded. "I think we ran out of cheese as well, Luffy ate that too."

Alice sighed with a uncertain smile. "Well, that sucks."

As the straw hats walked down the upper deck at the rumbling underwater, a loud meowing could be heard coming from the waters, making Alice flinch. A huge, sleek sea cat suddenly rose up from above, blocking their path. Chopper and Usopp freaked out, thinking it was some sort of monster, while Alice and Vivi beamed for different reasons.

"Chopper! I think my senses are getting together!" Alice yelled happily, making the reindeer jump on her back and both of them started to cheer, while the rest of the group was occupied trying to either catch the sea cat or stop the boys from trying to catch it, their hunger clouding their judgement.

"You can't eat it!!" Vivi shouted at the three voracious boys, with Usopp being the only one not trying to catch the sea cat, the group still had some morals intact.

"Is it a sacred animal, Vivi?" Alice asked, with Chopper now on my shoulder. Vivi nodded.

"Yes, In Alabasta, the sea cat is a sacred animals."

"The ocean's full of strange creatures," Chopper commented from his place on Alice's shoulder. Usopp let out a nervous yet sarcastic chuckle.

"H-Hmm...if you think that was strange...you ain't seen nothing yet." With Chopper's attention, he was up and fine all of a sudden. "Did I ever tell you about the time I fought a sea monster in the calm belt?"

"You did!!?"

And with that Chopper hoped off Alice's shoulder and tossed sparkles around while Luffy cried about how his lunch got away, staring at the bubbles in the sea.

Alice patted the pocket of her jeans with a small smile, her ear monitors not in use for a while. She hoped she could do something about the sensitivity because during the storm, she was in pain which caused some trouble to her and unbeknownst to her, Luffy might've developed a feeling that he doesn't know his sister well enough.

Vivi cheered Luffy up that he could eat plenty in the country. Nami informed Vivi that the weather seemed to be stabilizing to which Vivi confirmed it saying that they'd entered the Alabasta climate zone and the appearance of the cat proves it.

"So do those things behind us, right?" Commented Zoro with a lazy smirk on his face making the crew turn and gasp in shock.

Behind them were baroque works ships

"Oh no..." Mumbled Alice, making Luffy jump up and towards her, ruffling her hair in an attempt to distract her.

Vivi furrowed her brows a bit too much causing her to get frown lines. "Ships!!"

"Look at all those ships! When did they-?" Nami mumbled mumbled is disbelief before Usopp placed his goggles over his eyes to see clearly. "Hey, they all have baroque works signs on them! Am I right, Alice?"

She nodded in reply. "Yea, they are their ships alright."

"All right!! L-Let's shoot 'em with the cannon now!!" Yelled Usopp while panicking, ponting towards the ships with another hand on his hips. Luffy was quick to reject, waving his hands in front of him to stop him.

"No, it would be faster just to go over and kick their asses! No wait, I need to eat first!!"

"Stop getting worried. They're nothing." Zoro stated, making Alice turn to him, sending stars towards him with her eyes in admiration.

"Hey-ack! Stop it!!"

"They are probably the 'billions'-servants of the officer agents..." Vivi informed, slightly agitated. Nami stepped forward, in a similar situation as Vivi.

"200 of them will be tough."

"And these are different from the 200 elite bounty hunters baroque works hired for the whisky peak." Said Vivi.

"Yeah....all is lost if we lose slight of our true objective," Sanji reminded everyone, glancing at others calmly. "There's only 9 of us."

"So tie them on tight." Zoro grunted as he tied a cloth around his forearm. "Our enemies have plenty of mysteries."

The crew made a plan to tie a white strip of cloth around their forearm to make sure they can identify eachother as even identity can be stolen. The crew except Sanji and Alice had seen that of themselves.

"I see." Muttered Vivi, smiling in amusement while tieing the cloth around Nami's arm.

"As long as we can see these, we don't need to doubt one another." Said Nami.

"Does he really look like us that much?" Questioned Sanji, tieing the cloth around Alice. "When he does his 'Mane Mane fruit' thing?"

"Yea, I wonder that too." Commented Alice.

"He doesn't look like us, he is us. Too bad, you two really should really have seen it." Replied Usopp from his place on a crate.

"I'm not interested in Okamas." Stated Sanji before patting Alice's arm when he was done tying the cloth.

"I wanna meet him!" Stated Alice.

Seeing them having totally different opinions and points of views, Usopp just sighed.

"Now that we know he's among the enemy-we can't allow for any careless individual actions." Zoro asserted, a fist on top of his arm, tapping the clothed arm.

"Hey, what should I do??" Asked Chopper, desperate to make himself useful and provide assistance to his new crew, which totally grew on him in a couple of days.

"Just do what you. An, nothing else-" said Usopp with a fist raised to pump him up for the yet another adventure they would have. "Run away from enemies you can't beat! Just do your best."

"You are just telling that to yourself." Sanji grumbled making the girl beside him laugh. "I don't Sanji, they seem pumped up."

Sanji eyed Chopper and Karoo who seemed to very determined to do exactly what Usopp told Chopper. Karoo and Chopper kinda just bonded over seeing they can understand eachother while with Alice, the duck seemed be a bit intimidated by her eyes.

ᕙ⁠[⁠･⁠۝･⁠]⁠ᕗ

"We're coming up to the harbor. Let's stop in the Inlet to the west, we have to hide the ship." Vivi suggested making everyone agree.

"Okay!" Luffy exclaimed before extending a hand forward. "Whatever happens from now on, this left arm-" Everyone extended their left arm forward, mimicking his action. "Is proof of friendship."

Everyone smirked, feeling the sudden urge of confidence run through them.

"Now...Let's get onto day land!!-TO A RESTURANT!!! then Alabasta."

"SHUT UP, YOU IDIOT!!!"

The crew soon reached the inlet in the west, where they hid their ship while Alice went to get her bag and her sketch, eager to draw everything she sees.

But to her disappointment, as soon as she reached the deck, she saw her brother already running off in search of food.

The crew turned around when they saw something dropping to see Alice's bag and book on the deck while she wore a betrayed look on her face.

"Alice? What's wrong?" Asked Usopp with a concerned yet confused tone only to scream when she dropped down on the floor with little to motivation to get back up, tears streaming down unstop which flowed down the ship and into the ocean.

"WHAT THE HELL???!"

"ALICE!!"

"Alice, are you okay?!"

"MY LITTLE BEANNN!!"

"What the hell happened to her..?"

"Quack!!"

"This heart can't take this betrayal-Luffy? How could you?"

-I'm back