Theme: #03 – jolt!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the fabulous, perfect, godlike characters that will make an appearance in this story as I am most definitely not Eiichiro Oda. I do, however, entirely own Ford.

Notes:
Jeez, writer's blocks always decide to annoy me at the wrong time. I just couldn't bring myself to write this chapter, but I mentally kicked my own ass to finish this in my last night before my vacation.

But, honestly speaking, I'm kinda disappointed in myself after writing it. Something just seems... weird. Writing action scenes is pretty hard...

Anyway, thank you for all your nice reviews. I really appreciate it!

-- --

My Hungry Heart

THREE: Ford

-- --

It was humongous.

At least speaking from Vivi's point of view from the ground, even though she could only see it out of the corner of her eyes, since she didn't dare to pull her face out of the mud to turn toward it for a better look. But what she could make out was its size. She could at least fathom it by judging from its leastwise twelve inches long claws of its hind legs to the rest of the creature. She saw dark-green, scaly skin with a few gray spots. She watched in disgust as yellowish slime dripped to the ground, and where else would it come from if not from the monster's mouth? She didn't even want to know how big that thing's teeth were, especially not from a close angle…

To sum it up, her current situation was looking pretty much like this: She was lying gagged in the dirt with her face being pressed in the mud, one of her arms was probably dislocated, and above her were the heavy gasps of an unutterable monster with gigantic claws, supposedly just as big teeth and an emetic bad breath.

And the glorious Monkey D. Luffy was sitting behind the monster, with a gaping mouth and eyes as big as plates, just… staring.

Wordlessly. Meaning, without words.

And she could already see it coming; it was welling up inside of him, the one sentence that would put an end to their lives in an instant, leisurely, like an air bubble fighting its way to the surface of the water. But it was inching closer and closer, and even closer to his already dangerously open mouth. Unceasingly, direful, speaking a silent death sentence.

The princess frantically tried to make him understand telepathically with pure concentration that this – even though deep down inside of her there was still the small shrub of hope sprouting that this thing was nothing but a genetically manipulated, much too big lizard – was an embodied flashback to Little Garden. (Flashback. "Dinosaurs!" Flashback end.) A humongous embodied flashback. Vivi thought she had discovered over her shoulder while running earlier that it was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, at least that beast bore much more resemblance to that than to anything else that came to her mind. Still, so said her memory, something about this thing was completely different from your average dinosaur. Not only the extraordinary agility that usually only a cat of prey possessed, even the structure of the scales and, honestly, since when did a T-Rex run on four legs?

Do not move, she told herself over and over again. Whatever you do, don't move and it won't see you. So do not move.

That method had at least shown use up until now, even if she could not quite explain as to why that monster was still pausing above her; it was sniffling at her for minutes now, nudging her with its nose every now and then and covering her in its slimy slobber. And Luffy was still sitting there motionless, like a pillar of salt.

And staring.

Vivi felt a very, very queasy feeling soaring up inside of her. It was crawling forward from all her various body regions, finally culminating in her stomach. In the end, she could only send a quick prayer to heaven and hope, hope against all hope, that he was god damn it not about to do what she thought that he was about to do.

Please, Luffy-san. Pleading in her mind, she squeezed her eyes shut so firmly that her head almost began to ache a little. Please, Luffy-san, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it.

Her telepathic messages never hit their target, since something different was obviously making such great demands on Luffy's brain that everything else seemed to completely bounce off of him. The corners of his mouth were rising, turning his gaping amazement into an amazed grin. And then he did something that made Vivi swear to herself that if they would die now and go to heaven, she would – oh yes, she WOULD – beg God on her knees to resurrect them both so that she could kill Luffy once again: He drew a deep breath.

In a last hopeless attempt, she sent another quick prayer, that is, she actually sent two; one to heaven, and one to Luffy, Please don't. Don't do it. Please don't do it, Luffy-san.

But the glint in his eyes unmistakable meant that.

He's gonna do it, thought Vivi, closer to breaking out in tears than ever before.

"OH HOLY SHIT, THIS IS WAY TOO AWESOME!"

She desperately tried to drown herself in the mud; they were as good as dead anyway.

Now, how did they get into this again? Ah, that's right. Of course, what else would it be? After all, there was only one plausible reason for this coming to one's mind when observing the whole scene carefully.

After all, she was with Monkey D. Luffy. The very same Monkey D. Luffy who was drawing danger like a god damn magnet.

And everything started out so good too.

-- --

Two hours before, when Luffy and Vivi sat forth for their way back to the ship or their march to find other people (both were welcomed possibilities) without suspecting the least, Sanji was already suspecting something. Not much, nothing concrete, just an approaching small, big, medium-sized, whatever kind of disaster. If it would have been Usopp being haunted by this misgiving, he would be sure to give whatever sort of End-of-the-World-preaches, and even someone like Zoro or even Nami would have given some kind of warning, just in the unlikely case that their gut feeling was right.

But this was Sanji.

The very same Sanji whose countenance, as is known, can't be broken by anything. Least of all by some pathetic misgiving that probably wasn't true anyway. After all, this was the jungle, so a queasy gut feeling belonged to the everyday life of these surroundings like breathing and eating. Probably, or so he made himself believe, it was only thanks to the fact that they clarified from the beginning that when the possibility that even somebody like Luffy could very well already be dead wasn't nearly as farfetched as it sounded, then himself, Usopp and even his beloved Nami could be food within the course of only the blink of an eye.

And that was why he shoved the feeling to the back of his head where it belonged. And noted in silence that every jungle was the same: Unpredictable and terrifying.

It was gnawing at his subconscious anyhow, but when his angel decided to open her delicious mouth and grace them with her beautiful voice, everything was instantly forgotten, "Eww, what the heck is that smell?"

"Sorry, I farted!" Usopp admitted unashamedly as he timidly looked around.

Timid farting then, Sanji concluded matter-of-factly and grimaced in disgust. "It smells more like you freakin' decomposed."

"Sorry, sorry! It's because we had beans for breakfast. I can't help it, when I eat beans I fart like a whoopee cushion…"

"Could we please stop the fart-talk?" snored the chef. "There's a lady with us."

"I loathe jungles," murmured Nami to change the subject, subtly trembling, as she, much to his utter delight, shifted closer to Sanji. "They're so dark and full of disgusting sounds."

"Do not fret, my saccharine jungle queen, I'll protect you with my life!" Sanji assured her, visibly dancing on Cloud Nine.

"M-mark my words," stuttered Usopp, his voice quavering and his knees trembling, as he also moved closer to Sanji. "Death lurks behind each and every corner. Behind each corner. Behind each--"

"We get the idea, thank you very much!" snapped the cook in irritation, tearing his arm away from Usopp's grasp. "And stop invading my personal bubble, you shitty wimp. The space around my body is only reserved to my radiant Nami-san."

Usopp had a look in his eyes that would have melted every guy's heart away in an instant – if he would be a woman. "B-but jungles are so dark… and…" But all of a sudden, his personality took a drastic turn, just like the weather did when it changed from sunny to stormy, as he realized what he was saying. "And… and besides, I just wanted to protect you! That's right! You ungrateful snob!"

"So why don't you go ahead then, Usopp," suggested Nami, a sweet and sickly (however clearly also mischievous) smile on her face. "I'm sure that all those horrid and hungry creatures of the jungle won't dare to set even one foot close to us when they spot the Great Captain Usopp-sama."

When Usopp instantly turned so pale that he was almost transparent, Sanji had to suppress a grin. She's so evil, my Nami-san, he thought in amusement. But that's exactly why I love her!

Usopp gulped. "O-of course," he stuttered, walking ahead with shaking legs. "The Great Captain Usopp-sama will protect his nakama even if it means certain… d-death!"

"Oh yeah, I feel very protected," Sanji murmured wryly to the navigator who simply sighed.

"C-come at me, you monsters! You beasts! All you horrors that are walking abroad!" yelled the liar into the darkness, pulling out his – admittedly not very scary-looking – slingshot. "I-I'm prepared and armed! Ye-he-hes! I have a giant bazooka with a firepower that already destroyed whole islands! And I do have the heart to use it!"

Sanji groaned. "I bet all those beasts are already shitting their pants back there."

"Sanji-kun!" whispered Nami with a restrained giggle into her palm. "You're so mean! He's serious, you know!"

"That's exactly what makes it so damn sad."

Nami launched out a shocked laugh. "Sanji-kun!"

"Oh yeah, just go ahead and make fun of me, you pair of fools!" exclaimed Usopp, turning around with a swelled chest, suddenly not cowardly anymore at all. "Soon you're gonna grovel before me in eternal gratitude and humbly beg for me to forgive you after I saved you guys from a horrifying mixture of a lizard and a cat of prey!"

"Well, what are the odds of something like that actually happening?" growled the cook, taking a puff from his cigarette.

"Higher than you might think, Sanji!" declared Usopp with a direful voice. "You never know what's awaiting you behind the next tree as you find yourself being drawn deeper and deeper into the depths of the jungle. You can really count yourselves lucky to have me, Usopp the Jungle Conqueror, right by your side to rescue you from the roots of evilness!" He brought a hand under his chin, smiling a knowing smile. "As you two ignorant people will surely have missed out, there's this special aura surrounding me which awes the animals right away", Sanji groaned in annoyance, "and so you really have absolutely no reason to be afraid. As long as I'm with you, you'll be safe!"

But when the bush right behind the marksman began to rustle in that very moment, his claim was proved untrue, for nobody could blink as fast as Usopp was holing up behind Sanji; even his scream took longer to reach them than the liar himself. Nami also swallowed down a great deal of fear and grabbed for Sanji's arm, who only stared at the bush, calmly and straight-faced, curious about what would appear.

"We're dead," Usopp murmured apathetically from behind the cook. "We're gonna die, we're dead, as dead as a doornail, as a dodo, as a mutton, stone-dead, just simply dead, death, doom, hell, horror, devil, pain, adieu."

"Wh-what's gonna come out…?" whispered Nami in fear.

Sanji only narrowed his eyes and continued to stare. The rustling grew heavier and heavier, louder and louder and in the moment where the suspense was about to kill everyone, the horror was much bigger when suddenly a brown fur ball came rolling out from the bush. The trio blinked in complete bafflement as the fur ball untangled itself, revealing a cute muzzle and big saucer eyes. The cat-like animal baby launched out a small meow and stared at them. When it even cocked its head, Nami couldn't help it anymore.

"Aww!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands in delight. "How adorable! I wanna cuddle it!"

While Nami walked over to the little lion without hesitation, Sanji peered down at the stunned Usopp in exasperation. "Our hero," he mocked monotonously. "I don't know what we would've done without you. You really intimidated that big bad beast with your aura. How can we ever express our gratitude."

At first the sniper blushed with shame, but he was quick to do a proud pose again. "Ha, there you have it! With my supernatural aura, I transformed the terrifying lion back to a baby!"

"All right, now it's getting absurd!" snapped Sanji.

"Aw, poor thing. Her hind leg got tangled up in the bush. It's stuck in there", said Nami, observing the small lion's hind leg, which was completely enveloped by a strange climber. She smiled as she patted its head. "There, there, cutie. I'll untie you."

Usopp blinked. "How do you know it's a she?"

"Female intuition," grinned Nami as she tried to loosen the climber from the animal's leg.

"Oh Nami-san, your female intuition makes you only more beautiful! When I see you, I'm always reminded that true perfection really does exist!" purred Sanji.

She knitted her brows, ignoring Sanji completely. "It's really tight", she murmured more to herself, still trying to handle the plant. "As if someone tied it around the leg on purpose."

"Let me have a look, Nami", said Usopp, kneeling down beside her and pulling out his pocket knife. Nami moved out of the way to let the sharpshooter have a better look on the climber. As soon as he took it in his hand and felt the structure, his brows furrowed, realization striking him like a lightning. "No wonder you would think that. This is no plant – it's a rope, disguised as a climber."

"What!?" exclaimed the navigator in surprise. "A rope!? Are you really sure about that?"

Usopp nodded. "I'd know human work when I see it. And this is definitely one," he said, and then pointed at a small knot in the rope. "You see that? It's a sailor's knot. So natives couldn't have done it."

Nami's eyes widened. "A sailor's knot? So you're trying to say that either Luffy or Vivi did that?"

"On the contrary," said the liar. "Vivi's a princess, so it's pretty safe to assume that she has no clue about sailor's knots and Luffy doesn't even know how to pronounce it. Besides," he paused and frowned, "this is a knot that I only saw marines using up until now."

"But this island is uninhabited," said Nami. "Zoro and I walked around the whole island and found neither human life, nor a marine ship anywhere. It can't be a marine."

"Unless there's a castaway somewhere on this island," speculated Usopp.

Nami pondered with him. "That's a possibility, but it still doesn't quite explain this," she said, watching Usopp cutting through the rope around the animal baby's leg with his pocket knife. The small lion instantly turned to its injured hind leg and began to lick at the wound devotedly. "After all, it's a pretty odd thing to tie a lion baby at a bush. Why would someone do that?"

"Maybe to make sure that it won't end up like this."

Nami and Usopp turned around to Sanji in bewilderment. The cook had been suspiciously silent for quite a while now and so it was not that surprising to see him standing with his back turned to them about fifteen feet away in front of a clearing. The lion baby instantly got to its feet and dashed in Sanji's direction, followed by the navigator and the sniper. When they arrived there, it was instantly as plain as day to them that this clearing was nowhere near a natural clearing, as well as the path they had taken up until now was no natural path. Apparently, the palms and bushes had been downright steamrollered, even if not as clean as a real steamroller would have done it. And in the middle of the clearing there was…

Nami gasped when an incredibly strong feeling of sickness occurred to her and instantly turned around again with a hand clasped over her mouth. She found her face being pressed against Sanji's chest as the chef embraced her with one arm. While she squeezed her eyes shut and Sanji sighed into his cigarette, Usopp's face formed to a grimace between disgust and sympathy. The meowing of the lion baby grew louder and more penetrating as it nudged the lifeless, blood-soaked body of its mother over and over, no matter if it got itself soaked with blood too.

"Holy crap," muttered Usopp into his palm. His terrified eyes were not able to stand the picture much longer, but he couldn't look away either. It was one of those scenes that were too horrible to look away, even though you may want to. "Who in Roger's name did that?"

"You mean what," corrected Sanji much calmer than he should be. "A human couldn't possibly have done that."

Nami quietly sobbed into Sanji's shirt. "It's horrible," she whispered. "God, it's so horrible."

"If you ask me," said the chef, "then Mr. Incognito (Usopp: "And just who is that?") tied the lion baby because it would've run after its mother, who was in the middle of a fight, and probably even would've tried to help her out somehow. Mr. Incognito knew right from the start that the mother didn't stand a chance and that the kid would just end up as dessert, so he tied it up to at least save one of them. Then he tried to help the mother, but only got himself eaten in one bite."

"How did you come up with all that?" Usopp asked sceptically, Nami also calmed down a bit and gave Sanji a puzzled look.

Sanji smiled a slightly superior smile. "That's easy," he said and pointed to the left. "Over there is a shoe. Which by the way I will refer to as Piece of Evidence A from now on."

"Beautifully combined, Mr. Holmes," admitted Usopp.

"Why, thank you very much, Watson," Sanji grinned proudly.

"All well and good, detective boy," Nami cut in, arching a brow and crossing her arms. "But that still doesn't explain what exactly could be so… huge to actually tear down whole trees, mangle a lion and devour a human."

Sanji brought a hand under his chin, resolving to buy himself a pipe on the next island – for the next time. "Good point," he said. "I guess that the culprit (Nami: "Will you stop that detective-talk already!") was about three times as big as an average lion. At least, that would be the only logical assumption."

Nami's eyes widened, Usopp gulped. For a while there was a tense silence in the air, in which the only sounds to be heard were the painful crying of the lion baby and the fizzling of a match when Sanji lit himself a cigarette (instead of a pipe).

"Now I'm really worried about Luffy and Vivi-chan," said the chef.

Usopp gave a dry laugh. "Judging from you admitting so easily that you're also worried about Luffy, the two of them really are doomed."

Nami said nothing and only continued to stare at her two crewmates.

She could see in Usopp's face what he was thinking as clearly as the day – are Luffy and Vivi already dead? It was as if it was written on his forehead. And when her gaze flitted over at Sanji, she realized in confusion that his expression came pretty close to Usopp's, however he was probably thinking something like: I'll kill that shitty thing if it harmed them somehow. Nami looked at the ground, listening to her own thoughts, waiting for a signal of her inner voice. She wasn't nearly as pessimistic as Usopp even though she was concerned about Vivi, nor as fierce as Sanji, since this was about Monkey D. Luffy.

The day that Luffy got himself beaten was, at least in her world, the day that was never going to dawn and she desperately counted on that. It was the only certainty one could really trust in. It was as safe as the sun coming up every day and as safe as there was water and air. It was a fact. It was no wishful thinking, naive trust or insane belief. It was like set in stone that Luffy would not die. Not on an island like this. And not by an animal like that.

"Luffy's going to be the Pirate King," she suddenly said, both men looked up at her in surprise. She grinned, but there were tears in her eyes anyhow. "So he can't die, right?"

Sanji gave her a look of pure sympathy. "Nami-san…"

"As long as Luffy is staying with Vivi, everything should be okay. Nothing can happen to her," she said, even though none of them really knew who she was actually trying to convince. "So everything should be fine."

Sanji, who immediately knew that she was just looking for reassurance, forced a smile. "Yes, Nami-san," he said. "Everything's fine."

Usopp nodded with an encouraging grin on his face. "Everything's fine, Nami. Definitely."

"Yup." Nami grinned back. "Everything's fine."

-- --

"Hoist the anchor and off we cast!"

There was a deep sigh. "Yo ho, heave ho."

"Our heart is black and our greed is so vast!"

Another sigh. "Yo ho, heave ho."

"Aye, they pillage and they murder too," Luffy sang cheerfully, "that horrible captain and his scary crew! The devil's comrades, lo and behold, they'll kill everyone for a sack of gold!" His grin was incredibly wide, obviously he was enjoying himself. "Hoist the colour to flaunt in the wind!"

Unlike Vivi, who sighed for third time as he pointed a demanding finger at her, singing rather monotonously, "Yo ho, heave ho."

"Our loot, it comes and goes with the sin!"

"Why a pirate song, anyways?" asked the princess, abruptly cutting off their shared singsong as she climbed over a thick root. "Shouldn't we rather pitch a hiking song or something along those lines?"

Luffy offered her a superior smile, shaking his index finger at her. "Tch, tch, tch," he teased. "Vivi, sometimes you're really dumber than you look."

Her cheeks flushed with anger. "H-hey!"

"We," Luffy declared meaningfully, stemming his hands in his sides, "are pirates! And not hikers." He said the latter like it was some very contagious disease.

Vivi opened her mouth to answer him back, to make clear that she was not (yet?) a pirate, but something, she didn't know exactly what, stopped her from doing it. Not a single sound rolled over her tongue, it felt like there was an invisible hand on her mouth, which was why she closed it again, confused by her own thoughts. Did she want to be a pirate? Did he? Why did he insist so persistently to always include her whenever he was speaking about things like 'we' and 'pirates' and 'nakama'?

She did not (yet?) know an answer to this question.

The one thing she could do was smile. Smile and sigh. "Right."

Luffy nodded, pretending to be someone serious (probably Zoro). "On with the show then," he said, drawing breath for the second verse, "They drown their conscience in a bottle of rum – and sometimes they even whack someone! Aye, they punch on another with might and main – and if someone dies it's at least not in vain!"

When he turned around to her with a grin full of expectation then, the princess blushed with shame. "I-I don't wanna sing that! Not that!"

"Why not?" Luffy asked defiantly and knitted his brows in a snit. "That word's funny."

"That word is stupid—wait, it's not even a word to begin with," Vivi replied in bewilderment.

The captain rolled his eyes (which looked funny for some reason; maybe because this was her first time seeing him do that kind of gesture). "Just because you don't know that word doesn't mean that it doesn't exist," he declared determinedly. After a moment, his eyes flashed up as an idea occurred to him, and he gave her a bold grin. "But it's okay if you don't wanna sing along with me. Just go ahead and be a killjoy then."

Vivi's jaw dropped down. Killjoy!?

With flushed cheeks, she gathered up all her courage and squeezed her eyes shut. "H-hulabaka," she sang quietly, "hulabaka, you thought wrong…"

Luffy snickered about his triumph and continued, "The terrible things are yet still to come!"

"H-hulabaka, hulabaka, beware of our force…"

"Once the treasure is found, disaster takes course!" he sang loudly. And now he could finally sing the chorus, his favourite part of the song, "Hoist the anchor and turn alee!"

Vivi scowled at the ground, not thrilled at all. "Yo ho, heave ho…"

"No, no, no, no, no!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed like an expressionist whose painting had been mortally insulted. "This doesn't work! You just keep on doing it wrong!"

She blinked at the pirate in confusion as he shook his head. "Eh?"

He turned around to her, eccentrically throwing his arms in the air as if he was about to announce the Last Judgement. "You've gotta put your soul into it and sing as loud as you can! It has to be fun, you know?" He tucked his fingers into the corners of his mouth, stretching his elastic lips out to a superhuman grin. "Jusht grin like me, Vivi! Then it worksh like magic!"

Vivi grimaced for a bit, but quickly snapped out of it to force an irritated grin to her lips. Then she made another attempt, however still listless, "Yo ho, heave ho."

"WRONG!" declared the captain, shaking his head. "Just laugh!"

The princess scowled at him. "I can't laugh on cue, Luffy-san!"

"Hmph." Sulking a little, Luffy stared back until a new idea occurred to him. His eyes flashed up, his mouth formed a sharp grin. "Unless…"

Vivi gulped puzzled when he gloomily raised his hands as if he was the big bad wolf about to devour her, the poor Little Red Riding Hood, neck and crop. "U-unless what?"

"Unless I force you to laugh!" And sure enough, the next moment Luffy lunged at her and started to tickle her so roughly that it was simply impossible suppress the laughter for too long.

However Vivi, as pigheaded as she was, still forced herself to keep her countenance and hence her face began to form the funniest expressions within the next seconds that Luffy had ever seen on her: It started out with a simply bite on her lower lip, then her whole face flushed crimson until her cheeks puffed and her eyes started to tear. Until she couldn't keep it in any longer and burst out laughing.

"S-stop it!" shrieked the princess, laughing helplessly.

Luffy grinned mischievously, singing once more, "Hoist the anchor and turn alee!"

Vivi, who immediately knew that this torture would probably only stop when she joined in, rather laughed than really sang, "Y-yo hooo, heave ho!"

His grin grew larger, he was obviously satisfied. "All the secrets are safe in the sea!"

"Yo hooo, h-heave ho!" laughed Vivi, gasping for air.

"When the sails are set and the wind takes a breath, the dirty lot will accept even death!" sang the captain, still tickling Vivi. "With a ship full of pirates, from the rear to the bow, there's no telling when there'll be a blow! Hoist the colour and do your bit!"

"Lu-Luffy-san," gasped Vivi between giggles, trying vainly to pull his hands away from her waist, convulsed with laughter. "P-please stop! It's too much!"

"Siiing," hummed Luffy, grinning. "Or else I'll never stop and you'll be tickled by me for the rest of your life! For eternity and even longer! So sing!"

For a heartbeat, the absolutely absurd and extremely confusing thought occurred to her that it didn't sound that bad at all; forever and eternity and rest of the life, as long as his name showed up in there. But she lacked the time to wonder about it much longer, for the next fit of laughter was already shaking her up. Well, whatever – if singing was going to help him stop, she would just sing.

"Yo ho, heave ho!"

"We're pirates!" Luffy sang while he laughed. "Pirates and that is it!"

"I-it's really too much," Vivi barely managed to choke out as she vainly kept on pinching his rubber-hands, which he apparently didn't even feel.

Luffy shook his head determinedly, giving her a superior grin. "No-hope, first you finish the song!"

"N-no, it's really too much!" she laughed almost a little whiny-voiced, taking a few steps backwards to escape him that way; however Luffy wasn't shaken off that easy and simply walked along. "My tummy is already hurting!"

"So siiing then!" grinned Luffy as she kept on walking backwards.

"Y-yo ho—"

Before any of the two could grasp the situation, Vivi's heel got tangled up in one of the many roots on the ground, so she grabbed for the fabric of Luffy's shirt out of reflex to find support. However, that only served to make them both fall to the ground together. And suddenly Vivi was lying on her back…

… with Luffy on top of her.

"—heave ho…?"

Her eyes widening in shock, Vivi looked up at the heavens, not daring to move. Her face was flushed and definitely not from laughing. She felt herself tremble subtly when she felt his hot breath on the sensitive skin of her neck and his warm hand on those few inches of bare skin, right there where her top had rode up a bit. And her heart was beating faster and faster, so loud, so quick, so roughly that she could swear that he was able to hear it or at least feel it.

Oh God. Oh God. Oh God. OhGodohGodohGod.

This is not good, not at all, she thought desperately. And I just can't seem to open my mouth…

Luffy's laughter died off rather quickly too, still he was the first to snap out of it and wake from that embarrassing silence and numbness. He based himself on his arms to kneel over her and offered a sort of lost-looking smile, but his cheeks were not less red and his smile was also rather unsteady than really honest.

"Heh." It was a word, not a laugh. "Oops. Looks like I went a bit overboard here, eh?"

Vivi remained silent, completely dazed by the fact how close they were. How close his face was. His mouth… and suddenly, she felt that incredible urge inside of her. That confusing, weird, inappropriate, unbecoming urge to just raise her head a few inches and…

Eh?

She blinked in bewilderment when she felt his hand touch her cheek and her heart skipped a beat when she saw the look in his eyes. That serious look again, full of meaning. And then he began lowering his head, his eyes were already half-closed, obviously pained by the very same urge, for his mouth was inching closer and closer… she felt her mind going blank… and closer… her eyelids fluttered close… and closer…

And then he gave a threatening growl.

Aw.

… wait a minute, he was growling? Why would Luffy be growling?

She abruptly opened her eyes to find herself facing his puzzled expression. "Vivi," he said, blinking in total confusion, "did you… did you just growl?"

"Do I look like I'd randomly growl around!?" she snapped with flushed cheeks, but then she paused. "Hold on. If you didn't growl and I didn't growl… who did?"

Luffy sat up with a shrug and turned around just in time to see a giant shadow casting over them. He blinked in total bewilderment at the humongous claws gouging into the ground in a relatively short distance, appalled when he saw the scaly green skin and the enormous size of the… animal.

"Um." He gulped. "I think I know who growled."

At the sight of those claws – oh damn it, those claws – Vivi's mind immediately went completely blank. Blackout. Void. Belly ache. No, fear. Oh crap. Damn it. Oh God. Holy guardians of Alabasta.

WHAT. THE. HELL. WAS. THAT.

"Oi, you tabby cat," she suddenly heard Luffy say with a threatening voice as he stepped forward to protect her (Tabby cat? That thing was obviously a saurian! It had scales, got damn it!). "Get lost or I'll kick your ass."

Vivi tore at her hair in despair. Is he weary of life or something!?

"Are you insane, Luffy-san!? A madman!? Do you wanna die that bad!?" she shrieked, stricken with fear. She grabbed for his arm in the same moment that he turned around to blink at her puzzled. "Let's just run away! You have no chance winning against that thing!"

The captain puffed his cheeks, obviously offended somehow. "Hah!?" he exclaimed in a huff. "What's that supposed to mean!? That's mere child's play to me! Let's bet how long it'll take me!"

"This is not the right moment to get too big for your boots, Luffy-san!" Vivi's words seemed to have no effect at all. "Let's just get out of here!" She stared at him, begging, frightened. "Please! Please!"

Luffy stared back at her in silence, a strange expression on his face. There was a tense silence for a while, the monster was almost forgotten, but when it launched out another horrid growl and bent down to them so that they were on the same height with its yellow, bloodshot (at least 20 damn inches big) eye, the princess awakened from her numbness and a dull-sounding scream escaped her throat.

"Lu-Luffy-san," she whispered with a voice hoarse of fear and widened eyes, "please listen to me! Life's not always about whom you're able to beat and whom not or how strong you are! As a leader, it's your obligation to be considerate of those of your comrades who are not as strong as you are! Think about all the possible consequences, will you!" She was almost angry. "If we're goning to die here, then… then…"

Then Alabasta will go down, she should have thought, usually.

But much to her surprise, she didn't. The thought that crossed her mind instead was pretty much the last one she would ever have expected. Not because she was selfish or a bad person – it was because the normal case would require to think of Alabasta first above everything else, as a princess. But oddly enough, it was only the second thought haunting her.

The first one was: Then their dreams will end.

Luffy kept staring at her wordlessly for a few more heartbeats. After a while, a smile crept to his lips, slowly widening to an understanding grin. He nodded in realization.

"You're right. I'm sorry."

Vivi gasped in surprise as she gaped at him, puzzled over the fact that she had convinced him so quickly. He smiled at her and she looked into his eyes that returned her gaze with a strange glint. Something in his eyes immediately calmed her frantically beating heart.

He grinned. "Ready, steady, go."

Vivi barely had the time to blink at him in confusion before he grabbed for her wrist and began to run with her, away from the monster. She stumbled clumsily after the captain and when they brought a considerable distance between them and the monster, an ear piercing animal roar swept through the jungle that scared all birds out of the trees and almost demolished Vivi's ear-drum. The radical, fierce vibration beneath her feet and the loud banging on the ground immediately made her realize that the monster was on their heels – which was why she gave a choked whimper.

"Don't turn around, Vivi." Luffy's voice was oddly calm and collected. "Just run."

She bit her lower lip and nodded, even though she knew that he couldn't see it anyway. But that didn't matter, since there was that question nagging at her conscious – the question what kind of monster exactly that was. It looked like some kind of strange dinosaur, but also totally different somehow. Something had completely destroyed the picture of her average dinosaur. She just couldn't name exactly what.

In opposition to Luffy's advice, her curiosity crowed over her sanity and reason as she peeked back at the monster following them with an astounding stamina over her shoulder quickly, glad that they were still a little faster. And what she found there was all the more confusing.

"What the…" she gasped breathlessly. "Is that… is that thing running on four legs!?"

"Of course!" said Luffy. "It's a cat after all!"

"How's that thing a cat!?"

-- --

While Luffy and Vivi continued to discuss whether that monster was a cat or something else, and also ran away from said monster on their heels a little, they were oblivious to the pair of eyes watching their little marathon from a spot high up on a branch in one of the crowns. The man took a strong sip off his bottle of beer, leaning back against the bole and shaking his head.

"Tch, tch," he murmured quietly to himself. "Not smart. Not smart at all, those two. Why did they have to run away from him in the first place?" He launched out a hushed belch, patting his chest. "They should've just stayed right where they were. He was about to go anyway."

He took a last sip of his beer (it always tasted like an old shoe, but alcohol was alcohol), his stomach answering with an appalled hiccup, before he plunged the bottle back into his pocket and then jumped to stand on the branch.

"I should probably help them out. Killer looked especially hungry today," he said with a grin. "Besides, the girl was pretty cute. It'd be a shame for her to die here."

His grin grew larger as he nodded determinedly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Yosh! It's been so long since my last heroic deed and I'm bored anyway. Yup, I'm gonna save them!"

He struck a self-confident pose, which (though the alcohol probably wasn't that innocent either) served to unhinge him, lose his balance and slip off the branch. Fortunately he could wrap his arms around the wood just in time to not fall down. The man threw a glance at the ground and gulped.

"Jeez, that was close," he murmured. "That's it, I'm gonna quit drinking."

-- --

Wheezing, panting, gasping, breathlessness.

Vivi felt like she was burning. Her throat was scratchy and her chest felt like a sizzling volcano. And it hurt. It bloody hurt. Panting frantically, she squeezed her eyes shut and let Luffy drag her along, no matter where he was leading her, the main thing was that their point of final destination was far, far away from that monster.

"I-is…" she gasped breathlessly and it took her a lot of strength, "… is… i-is it still… running after us?"

Luffy's grasp around her wrist was slippery and moist; God only knew how he managed to still keep such a strong hold on her with his palm sweating so much. "No idea," he said between gasps. "I haven't looked since we started running!"

Vivi didn't know where she found the strength, but she guessed it must have been the last bit she had left as she turned her head around and peeked over her shoulder. Her eyes widened and her throat choked out a hoarse gasp. She stretched out her free hand to grab for Luffy's arm, making them brake abruptly.

"Wait a minute…!"

Panting wildly, the captain stared at her at first, and then he threw a glance at the path they had left behind. He realized in bewilderment that the monster was far and wide nowhere to be seen. He turned his head to the left – nothing. He turned his to the right – nothing.

Nothing.

"Eh?"

Vivi clasped a hand over her heart in relief, a weary smile forming on her lips. "It's… it's gone…! Thank God!"

Luffy apparently wasn't even anywhere near as relieved as the princess beside him was. On the contrary even. He narrowed his eyes in doubt, furrowing his brows. Something was wrong. He didn't know why, but something was definitely fishy. He just felt it. He felt it as strongly as he felt the hungry feeling inside of his belly.

The monster wasn't gone.

"Wait, Vivi," he said with that uncommon commanding tone he only used once in a blue moon whenever the situation was really dicey. He shoved her with his arm to stand behind him. "Something's wrong here."

"E-eh…?" he heard Vivi murmur in confusion from behind him. "What do you mean, Luffy-san?"

His eyes narrowed even more when a sudden realization struck him like a lightning. He turned his head to look up, heedfully, observant. "Oi." It was unmistakable, this time he knew for sure that his instinct wasn't playing a prank on him. "Did you take your weapon with you yesterday?"

Vivi blinked, obviously oblivious to everything. "Um… yeah, of course. Why do you ask?"

"Keep it ready."

Her eyes widened. "W-why…?"

His eyes were sparkling with anticipation. "Gomu Gomu no…" he murmured, lifting his arm to strike a blow, "… PISTOL!"

The next moment, his arm stretched with such a fast speed that it was impossible for Vivi to see it until it hit one of the many tree tops. She watched in some sort of weird state of shock as his fist disappeared between the branches and leaves and eventually clashed loudly with something hard. Leaves were flying about like an explosion together with pieces of wood that probably derived from the branches when they burst asunder and a body fell to the ground.

"GYAAA!"

Vivi and even Luffy could only stare in pure horror as the body hit the ground and remained lying there motionless. It took a whole minute for the princess to realize that the thing that fell off the tree just now was by no means anywhere near a monster. The face overgrown with a black beard, the long frizzy hair of the same color and the dirty clothes may be daunting in the same way, but still that body lying before them belonged to a…

"… human!" cried Vivi dumbfounded. "And you killed him!"

"R-really!?" shouted Luffy, completely befuddled. "Are you sure that it's not just a gorilla!? It looks like a gorilla to me! It's gotta be a gorilla! I say it's a gorilla!"

Vivi was so perplexed that she couldn't think straight anymore, and even took a short trip into Luffy's world of thoughts. "A gorilla!? You're right, it look s like one! It's definitely a gorilla!"

"I'M NOT A GORILLA, DAMN IT!" roared the ape-man suddenly in anger, straightening up.

Luffy and Vivi both immediately became as pale as ashes, shying away with a scream. "WHAAA! ZOMBIE!"

The man with the frizzy beard rubbed his head, loudly cursing over his obviously painful fall. "Ouch… that hit home… Those are pretty interesting devil fruit powers you got there, kiddo."

"See!?" shouted the princess frantically, pointing at the gorilla-man. "It is a human!"

"Of course I'm human," growled the man offended, a blush shining through his black beard and black hair. "Anyway, to come back to your devil fruit powers…" He offered them a grin full of yellow teeth. "Gomu Gomu no Mi, right?"

"That beard!" Luffy exclaimed appalled, pointing at him. "Shave it off! It's alive!"

"Are you even listening to me!?" snapped the man, but still brought a hand up to carefully feel his beard. "It's not really alive, right? I mean, sometimes I feel a tickling in there, but I thought it was just a bug or something…"

Luffy grimaced. "Oi, gorilla-ossan, no matter how cool it is to have bugs in your beard, you should take care of your personal hydro, or else goblins will come and get you!"

"What you mean is hygiene," Vivi pointed out with a sigh, and then glanced over at the unfamiliar man, trying to suppress her disgust at the bugs inside of his beard. "Besides, there are a lot of much more important things we should talk about right now. For example what you're doing here and who you are and why you were sitting in that tree and why you were watching us, and what-"

The man laughed, warm and sincere. "Whoa, whoa, one thing after the other, cutie."

"Cutie?" echoed Vivi, and oddly enough also Luffy, in bewilderment.

"First we should maybe find ourselves a more comfortable place than the muddy jungle-ground to continue our talk," said the gorilla-man. "Then I'll answer all of your questions. Let's just quickly get outta here before that guy decides to come back."

Vivi narrowed her eyes. "Who?"

The man opened his mouth to answer, but then he blinked startled at an uncertain point behind them, grinning in embarrassment. "Oops," he said. "Too late, I guess."

The ear-piercing growl following sent a jolt of fear down Vivi's spine that she would never forget in her entire life.

"Don't move. Then he won't see you."

Without listening to the well meant advice (maybe he simply overheard it between the growls), Luffy turned his head around in some kind of reflex. "Whoa! The tabby cat's back!" He was immediately ready for a battle. "Come and get us, you weird-looking pussycat!"

The second growl seemed to stupefy Vivi's ear-drum, leaving behind an obtrusive beeping.

"What the hell's wrong with you, kiddo!?" roared the ape-man furiously and jumped to stand. "Damn it, do children these days not have respect for anything at all!?"

Vivi couldn't react as fast as the man came running in their direction. In the course of the mere blink of an eye, he was before them and pushed herself and Luffy out of the way, murmuring nothing but a quick "Outta my way if you don't wanna die!" as he dashed past them. The next thing she knew was that she fell to the ground with her face landing in the mud, completely petrified with horror. It took her a few heartbeats to realize the pain in her shoulder and the inability to move her arms.

She was… gagged.

But how!?, she thought appalled. Was it that guy!? I didn't even notice anything!

A glance over at Luffy instantly told her that he wasn't any different. His hands were also tied up, but he apparently didn't even give a tinker's damn about his situation as he was way too busy marvelling at something else (probably his 'tabby cat'). She tried to look for the stranger over her shoulder, but it was completely impossible, not only since there was some mud in her eyes, also because he was totally out of her vision.

Don't tell me he's gonna abandon us to our fate like THIS!?

-- --

And so that was what had lead to her lying in the mud, gagged and probably with a dislocated shoulder. Threatened by an odd mixture of a saurian and a cat. Abandoned and turned in like an oblation by a complete stranger and the only other human on this godforsaken island. With nothing but a naive, carefree and obviously fearless pirate captain as a fellow sufferer; though suffering was said too much, since she would bet her last Beri that Luffy thought that all this was 'so damn cool'.

Why did it have to be her?

"OH HOLY SHIT, THIS IS WAY TOO AWESOME!"

Remember? Exactly: The Death Sentence.

But the same moment that Vivi lost all her hope, said her goodbyes to her life and mentally apologized to the people of Alabasta, the chance of a possible rescue burgeoned up somewhere behind her between the ear-piercing growls of the monster.

"Sorry, but I had to tie you guys up," said the gorilla-man. "The brat was about to attack and I couldn't possibly let that happen. You would've died."

"Hey!" she heard Luffy shout offended.

The man laughed. "But you're doing well, kids. Killer's totally confused. Wondering where all those voices are coming from, eh, you bastard?" He grinned at the monster in triumph. "His eyes are like a movement sensor. As long as you don't move, he won't see you. Luck's obviously on your side – he's totally unable to relate sounds to a certain direction."

"K-Killer?" echoed Vivi, her voice hoarse.

"Just wait a bit longer," said the gorilla-man. "He's gonna get bored and leave us alone. He knows when he has to admit defeat. He's gonna accept that."

Vivi's head was spinning, her emotions ran completely riot. This was a little too much for one day. Confusion, fear, questions, confusion, fear, questions. "E-exactly what kind of animal is that?"

"One that ate a devil fruit," answered the man. "And the mixture turned him into a true monster."

There was a snidely animal snort. Shortly after that, Vivi could hear the sound of heavy steps as the monster's claws gouged deeply into the ground, eliciting a small earthquake when he made his way back into the deep jungle, beaten. Vivi had yet still to fully grasp the information she had just heard as the quaking steps became quieter and quieter until they were eventually gone. A devil fruit. So that was why that thing had looked so genetically manipulated. She should have known.

The man gave another laugh. "See? Animals are just way too predictable once you studied their every move for long enough," he said. "I'm gonna untie you guys now."

"Oi, what was that all about, gorilla-ossan?" Luffy complained loudly as the man sliced through the rope around the captain's wrist with a knife. He rubbed his wrists, glaring angrily at the older man. "I could've easily knocked the stuffing outta that thing if you wouldn't have interfered. It didn't look that strong anyway."

"Oh, that much I'm positive of, kiddo," snickered the man. "And that's exactly why I had to tie you up."

"What? I don't get it," said Luffy, furrowing his brows, while the older man took care of Vivi's ties.

The gorilla-man gave sigh, but smiled either way. "Your devil fruit powers are quite impressive, kiddo. I could tell right away that you're pretty strong. You probably would've knocked Killer out with just one single punch," he admitted. "And I couldn't let that happen. Killer is my business. It's my fight. I can't allow you to meddle with my concerns."

Luffy raised his eyebrows, a smile crept to his face. "So you're rivals, right?" The man's laughter was enough of an answer. "You should've just told me right away. I don't steal the fights of other people."

Vivi straightened up, rubbing the hurting spot on her shoulder and wondering what kind of fight that guy was talking about. And why exactly they were fighting against each other. And what kind of devil fruit that thing ate. And why the gorilla-man knew so much about devil fruits anyway. He did know right away what kind of devil fruit powers Luffy had, didn't he? What kind of guy was that?

"Wahahaha!" Luffy burst out laughing, so loud and sudden that Vivi startled a little. "Oh jeez, you look like a mud-pie!"

The princess brought a hand up to touch her mud-covered face, hiding her crimson cheeks. "Sh-shut up! It's not my fault!"

Even the gorilla-man laughed. "Looks like that's my fault. I'm sorry, cutie," he said, standing up. "Let me make up for all this. It's not every day that I have some company, so I'd be very happy to treat you guys to a beer and maybe a steak or something. I have a-"

"STEAK!?" exclaimed Luffy, his eyes sparkling as he jumped to his feet. "We're coming! Right, Vivi?"

Luffy's face of pure excitement came pretty near to one of a fawning little puppy and it was just as cute, which was why Vivi couldn't help but give a small giggle. "Well, I don't drink, but something to eat would be nice indeed," she said. "Besides, there's a lot I still want to ask you."

"I'm gonna tell you everything you wanna know," said the man and grinned like an excited little kid would grin. "I'm just happy that we met. I haven't seen other humans in years, so I'm more than thrilled to welcome you in my humble home!"

Luffy grinned. "Just gimme a lot of meat! I'm starving!" Then, something seemed to occur to him. "Oh right, I'm Luffy by the way!"

Vivi blushed a bit when she realized that she missed to introduce herself. "My name's Vivi," she smiled. "Thank you for saving our lives, sir."

The older one waved it off in embarrassment, offering a grin. "Don't be so formal with me. Just call me Ford." He saluted with a smile. "Nice to meet you guys."

"All right, Ford, so let's get right to the point then," said Luffy, following the man as he began to walk. "Exactly what kinds of bugs are living there inside your beard?"

"Whoa, that's a good question!"

"Is there an Atlas Beetle? I'm looking for that one since forever!"

Vivi followed the two with a smile on her face, relieved to have overcome the shock. Her adrenaline was still running riot, but the whole thing was also incredibly exciting somehow. An adventure. The third exciting adventure in just one week. The third exciting adventure with Luffy. This was what his everyday life looked like. A new adventure day after day, as if there was no worry, no danger, no tomorrow.

"Oi! Stop fumbling about my beard!"

"Oooh! I think I just found a Great Diving Beetle!"

"Um, no. That's just… dirt."

She giggled into her hand in amusement as she watched Luffy. His world was so messy, so unpredictable, so interesting… so fun. Full of life and laughter and without commitments. He was simply free. Free and unworried. And that world of freedom was enviable.

Vivi wished she could be a part of it.

To Be Continued…