Warm Memories and Brotherly Bonds

Chapter 35: Merry's Tears and Sunny's Smile Part 2

"My," Brook said longingly at the memory of seeing the giant plates of food being eaten. "Your food is the best, Sanji-san. Looking at all the food you made for that party makes my stomach roar. Not that I have a stomach anymore! Yohohoho!"

"Glad you think so," Sanji said before he added, "Though, to be honest, I only want to cook for Robin and Nami!"

"You jerk!" Usopp yelled at him.

"Cooking is the only thing he can do," Zoro said with a yawn, "And he's not even good at that. Well, I suppose that the rest of us will just have to make the best of it."

"What'd you say you bastard?!" Sanji demanded furiously. "I swear, one of these days I'm gonna make you eat those words!"

"Yeah, and if you cook them, they could kill me," he retorted and the two of them were practically shooting off sparks of rage from their eyes until Robin stepped in and forced the two apart.

"Must we always go through this?" she asked, a hint of amusement, but also annoyance in her tone, "Doesn't it get tiring?"

"Honestly," Nami sighed, sounding weary. "Can't you just sit back and enjoy the memories without causing a civil war?"

"Well, he started it," they both said snippily before they turned their backs on each other, each with sour expressions. Thankfully, the fighting was cut off by the next memory. They were in town, surrounded by a large crowd of Water 7 citizens with Luffy and Chopper at the center of it. There was a man pulling on both of Luffy's arms, trying to get him to come with them so that they could continue with their celebration.

"What's this?" Brook asked curiously.

"I know this... everyone in town was doing that to us," Nami smiled, remembering the large group of people surrounding them everywhere they went and treating them like they were celebrities. "They were treating us all like heroes and told us what a great party that was. I think everyone practically drank themselves into a coma after that night." She frowned though when she remembered how they somehow managed to blow almost all their one hundred million remaining beri's in one night. She just didn't see how that was possible. She made a mental note to check for the money they still had on board Sunny when they finally get back to it. She wasn't going to let something like that happen again.

"Funny how the truth comes out and suddenly they stop treating us like we're criminals," Zoro sighed. "What a pain."

"You can't blame them, we are pirates after all," Robin pointed out, "Trouble follows us wherever we go. And the day that we come to town, bad things happen to it? We were in Water 7 for just one day after all?"

"I guess," he sighed, "But it's still a pain in the ass for us."

But as they watched, they heard a young voice calling out for Luffy, who when he turned to look, his arms ended up retracting, pulling and smashing the two men's heads together. But they hardly noticed that as a young girl was forced to crawl through the thick crowd's legs to get to him. When she got to her feet, they could see that she was dressed in a red vest with plaid yellow shorts, with her short brown hair tied up with white barrettes.

"Oh! That's Abi!" Chopper said, recognizing her at once.

"You know her?" Nami asked him in surprise.

"Yeah, this happened a few days after the party," Chopper said quickly as Abi ran over to Luffy. "And we helped her try to find her Yagara, watch."

Abi had just held up a photo of what had to be her family—with her, her parents and a very old looking Yagara with a blue fin and matching scarf.

"Please listen," she begged, holding up the picture so that they could see it. "I need your help! My dear sweet Yagara's gone missing! You have to help me find him! You're a hero right? Please!"