Our last sail

14. The king's rage

"Luffy": talk

"Sabo": whisper

"ACE": shout

"Gomu Gomu no": the skill's name

'idiot': thinking

<Joyboy>: voice of all things

-Into the story-

"Zoro! You awake"

Uta said when she saw her little brother waking up from losing his consciousness a while back. Zoro was confused, he remembered that they were just playing with Ray-san. Suddenly, everything became black, then he didn't remember anything afterward. He turned to his sister and asked

"Uta! What happened? Where is the old man?"

"I don't really know, I just woke up like you. I don't know where Shank is either", Uta answered.

The door then opened and Ben walked into their room to check on the two. He was relieved that both of them had woken up. He got closer to their beds, and checked up on them. Zoro knew Ben was just worried, so he and Uta let the man be. Ben then asked the kids.

"How do you feel, kids?"

"We are fine, although a little weak, but it'll be alright" Uta answered his question.

"It was meant to feel weak after your encounter with a strong wave of Haki like that."

"What is a Haki?" Zoro was curious. He had never heard of that term before.

"Well, I'll let Shanks explain it to you later. Do you want to meet him? I can lead you to him since everyone has also woken up, so I don't need to worry about the ship."

The kids quickly agreed with Ben's suggestion. Uta was excited to meet up with Luffy again after so long. She also promised Zoro that she would introduce Luffy to him. Besides that, Shanks wasn't there, so he might have gone to Luffy's place. If they went to Shanks, they might get a chance to meet the straw hat boy. When they left the room, the ship was suddenly shaken by a strong wind. They all saw fire pillar going straight up into the sky. Everyone was worried, since they had been informed about Luffy's situation by Ben. That pillar must be a bad sign.

Ben then went with the two kids to the way Dragon had told him, if he decided to go to their place later. It was quite a long walk, but they all managed to arrive there. Ben saw Dragon was protecting the people from that place with two enormous beasts. He then asked Dragon about what had happened. Zoro and the other kids were also curious about it, so they listened.

After a while, Uta saw Shanks and Rayleigh were back with three other kids with them. The tall blond who they had introduced as Corazon, and the bandit lady whose name was Dandan quickly came to them and took all the kids to the smaller wooden house. The three kids and a small polar bear also went with him. When Shanks had arrived at the house, he told them what happened to the two unconscious kids and Ace.

Zoro was surprised to know the one that made them lose consciousness and created the fire pillar was that kid with the straw hat, who was on Shanks' back a few moments ago. At first, Zoro wanted to have a fight with the Anchor boy, but it seemed like it wasn't needed anymore. That boy had already earned his respect.

After a while, the freckled boy came running out of the house while Corazon was chasing him. Rayleigh suddenly stopped Corazon.

"Don't chase him, let him be alone for a while."

Corazon then gave up chasing Ace. He turned to the group and told them that they could go inside and greet the boys but be quiet, because Luffy was still sleeping. Uta quickly pushed Zoro inside, the adults also went in with them. They all stayed in the living room. Later, Corazon walked with Law, who was still struggling to walk by himself because of the dizziness from lost blood. When the boy had sat down in front of them, Ben immediately asked