Second Wind

3

While Luffy and Zoro drank to their heart's content, Nami quickly excused herself from the bar. Luffy gave a polite goodbye and said they'd meet again, which only served to unnerve her. She made her way out of the bar as Luffy ranted about how he desperately needed some meat and she quickened her steps once she was out. Something about those two just made her want to get as far away as possible. Next stop, Marine base.

The bartender watched in exasperation as Luffy devoured plate after plate of food. His body was gradually expanding before their eyes, and some had lost their appetites just watching the process. Zoro simply kept eating as if it was completely natural. Luffy finished his last plate of food, and Zoro felt kind of guilty. Ririka had offered him free food until he set out on his journey, and was quite gracious in extending that offer to a broke friend of his, but she obviously couldn't have accounted for Luffy's monster of a stomach.

Luffy sighed in contentment and stood up, his round physique sagging in response to the action. A few bystanders wondered how this was possible. When Luffy's face scrunched up in concentration and his round physique rebounded into a slim figure, muscles bulging as if the mass had been redirected, they gave up trying to make sense of anything they were seeing. Once again, Zoro acted as if this was normal. "Aaahh, that's better," Luffy said in satisfaction. "I feel like I'm at full strength now!"

Zoro rolled his eyes. "I don't think we'll be back at full strength for a while, Luffy."

Luffy nodded. "We'll talk about that later."

Coby, who had resignedly stopped trying to make sense of anything the two said as well, asked the obvious question. "Um, are you guys staying here for a while? Why did you need to meet up?"

Luffy glanced at Coby and grinned. "Actually, we're going out to sea. Zoro is gonna be my first crewmate."

Coby gaped. "You mean...as a pirate?"

Luffy nodded, seemingly amused. "Yeah, what else?" Coby tried to wrap his mind around the Pirate Hunter becoming a pirate. Mutterings broke out through the bar, and one of them turned to Zoro, confident due to his drunken state.

"Whoa, whoa! The Pirate Hunter Zoro is going to follow a pirate? Is that true?"

Zoro, rather than addressing the question directly, turned back to Luffy. "So, when do we set sail, Captain?" They both ignored the increased volume of the mutterings.

"Just as soon as we get a ship that can take us," Luffy replied cheerfully.

Zoro facepalmed. Not this shit again. He really should have expected this. Some things never changed.

"Hey, fellas. If it's a boat you need, I run a business selling small ones. You're welcome to take one. It's the least I can do after what you've done for our town." Zoro turned to the voice and nodded gratefully. "Thanks, that'd be really helpful."

After that, they finished the last of their booze and said their farewells to Coby. Luffy told him to become a great Marine and always follow his own sense of justice, and he vowed that he would. Luffy and Zoro got their boat from the man who had volunteered his services and led them to his shop at the coast of the island, and without further ado, they set sail for the place they knew to be called Orange Town.

Getting there, on the other hand, was a different story. Luffy and Zoro marveled at the fact that they were able to get there once before, remembering that they had basically been wandering around aimlessly in search of a navigator, and by some stroke of luck, happened to find Nami. Zoro assured Luffy that Nami would go there and that her presence the first time wasn't completely random. While he was raising hell in the Marine base, he found a memo from Buggy the Clown in a safe that he knew wouldn't escape Nami's notice. They knew where Buggy was, and they didn't doubt that Nami would find him, so logically Orange Town was their next destination. However, they were getting increasingly frustrated by the second in the execution of actually getting there.

Zoro was holding the map and compass, which should have immediately rung alarm bells in Luffy's head, but he wasn't much better at this, so he was rowing for now. He watched in awe as Zoro confidently pointed in the direction they needed to go. Luffy was impressed for a moment, wondering how on earth he'd done it, before turning skeptical. "Wait a minute. How did you come to that conclusion?"

Zoro looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "What? It's not that hard. This map says that Orange Town is to the west. That means that we need to go to the left," he said patronizingly.

"Ah," Luffy said, hitting his palm with his fist as his face lit up in realization at the sound logic. "You're right. Ok, let's go." He picked up the oars and happily started rowing, continuing for about 10 seconds before he face faulted. He quickly got up, placing his arms above his head in the shape of an X. "NOOOOOOO! Wrooooong!"

Zoro looked at him as if he was sporting three heads now. "What's your problem, Luffy?" he asked, annoyed.

"Influenced! I was put under the influence! That's not how navigation works at all!" For the way Zoro was looking at him now, he might as well be a fully-grown hydra. He pointed accusingly at Zoro. "You didn't even use the compass!"

Zoro sighed. "What do you take me for?" he asked in exasperation. "Of course I did." He pointed in the direction that they had been going in. "The compass is pointing that way, so that's the way we need to go. Are you satisfied now?"

Luffy was stunned. Zoro really had been navigating with a map and compass. Suddenly he wanted to kick himself for doubting his comrade. He flashed Zoro a sheepish smile, and Zoro accepted the unspoken apology without comment. They rowed in silence for 10 more minutes before the extent of the fallacious reasoning hit Luffy with all the force of one his crazy ass grandpa's mountain-crushing fists.

Fuck.