One Piece (Love Story) [Part One]

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Three [Rewritten]

-Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Three-

"Oh, shut up!" I huffed, not in the mood to listen to the man broadcast just how easily the men of our crew fell for this little friendly setup of theirs just because they offered them food, booze, and women...as well as sweets, but I couldn't blame Chopper too much for his sweet tooth.

"The Party Distraction—and they lured in two Straw Hat boats for the K.O.!" Itomimizu laughed. Looking toward Chopper, I felt my anger die down just a little as I couldn't help but huff a laugh at just how adorable he looked upon eating his candy apple—how happy he seemed to be as he munched on the sweet. He was just too cute for his own good sometimes. Heaving a sigh, I let my head lull back and look upward as I came to the realization that it really was up to Nami and them to win this race just like she had assumed at the beginning.

"Nami?! Robin?!" Sanji perked up, quick to stand when he heard the two women scream upon having their boat almost destroyed. "Come on, the girls need our help—let's go!" he shouted, dragging Luffy back onto their boat—no longer caring about the other women he was now having to leave behind.

"Come on, big guy—we're leaving" I said, patting Zoro's back as I stood and climbed back into our boat.

"Chopper, let's go" Zoro motioned as he got back into the boat as well, wincing just a little as I struck the back of his head.

"Now that you're both done being all buddy-buddy with the enemy, we can probably catch up to the two of them if we hurry" I remarked the moment I spotted just how far ahead Sanji and Luffy had gotten. Zoro only nodded as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Alright, folks!" Itomimizu began. "Currently in the lead of the race is everyone's all-time favorite—the "Cutie Wagon." Behind them in second place is the "Barrel Tiger" followed by...wow, guess they're back in the running—third place is the "Crab Crane" it seems!" he announced, surprised by who was taking up third place.

"We're so far behind" I couldn't help but pout as Zoro snuggled his face into the back of my head, mumbling small apologies as he did so. I've never really been competitive but knowing that we were really lagging behind the others—especially behind Sanji and Luffy's boat of all things—annoyed me just a little. "Eh?" I blinked when Sanji and Luffy's boat suddenly rocketed forward and left us even further behind.

"Ah, we're getting nowhere here..." Zoro grumbled as he placed his chin on my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure it would be faster if we paddled" he noted, already starting to look for the paddles that we had been given at the beginning of the race along with our barrels.

"Yeah, well...the thing is..." Chopper started to nervously laugh as I twirled a strand of hair around my finger, avoiding looking at the swordsman altogether.

"We kind of used the oars to build the handler..." I finished, sweating bullets as Zoro now irritably looked between the reindeer and me. Before he could get the chance to chew us out for our stupidity, he suddenly turned and cut off a piece of our boat—trying his best to block the spike that had been sent toward us by the other Swordfish King boat that was still in the race.

"Huh? I forgot that there were two of them..." I muttered as Zoro jumped from our ship and onto theirs.

"Not even a hello, huh?" he questioned.

"Not our style—we believe in winning anyway we can!" one of the men on the other boat grinned.

"Really? Well, in that case, Bull Point!" Zoro wasted no time in attacking the opposing boat—quickly diving into the water before any of the men had a chance to fight back as their boat slowly began to sink.