Karaoke-Night   von Sharry
                                (A normal day)
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                                  Kapitel 1: 
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“Come on, Zoro! “
A loud laughter filled the streets of a small village. Just a few minutes ago
the strawhat-crew had reached the harbor of a dreamlike island. It was an
ordinary day and the black-haired boy was full of energy like always.
“Got it, got it. Stop being so annoying. I’m coming. “
With a low growl the swordfighter of the pirategang allowed his captain to pull
him through the tight alleys of the hamlet.
Actually he would have liked to stay on board, using the spare time for some
extra training session, but order was order, no matter how stupid it was.
“Luffy! Wait up for a second! “ The likewise irritated voice of the young
navigator rose suddenly, who hurried after the chaoscouple.
“We do not even know anything about this island yet. What if we get
attacked?”
But the rubberboy just laughed even louder. “Man, that would be great! Just
having some fun!”
“Just having some fun?” echoed the longnosed King of Liars doubtful, while
he tried to close up to Luffy and Zoro.
Except for the ship’s carpenter everyone had left the ship, to move the legs
just for a little while and to buy the most important needs. All of them wanted
to enjoy one day on solid ground, visiting an unknown island, meeting new
people, finding new friends, before they would once again set sail the next
morning.
Well, almost all of them.
The former pirathunter would have gladly missed this useless pastime. However,
here he was and followed reluctantly the happy-faced gummibear, which still
clinched to his wrist and pulled him from one store to another, just to notice,
that none of them sold food.
Not far behind those two young men followed the rest of the crew. The skeleton,
the young doctor and the archeologist brought up the rear, while discussing
excited.
Just a few feet before them was the lovecook, following the very love of his
life.
“Tell me, sweet Nami, how long will we stay on this island?”
The addressed one rolled her eyes and reached up to the longnose.
“Didn’t I just say that a few minutes ago? Weren’t you listening?”
“Probably he was too busy, admiring Robin in her new dress.” added Usopp
grinning.
Sanji could not help but turn around at those words, watching the other love of
his life floating down the street in a red dream of grace.
“Isn’t she simply beautiful?” he whispered in awe. Small hearts of smoke
puffed out of his cigarette.
Quite fast he calmed down again, as he noticed the small angry sparks filling
the air around the lady next to him. Quickly he cleared his throat and reminded
her politely of his question.
Before she could answer him, the desperate voice of their captain reached them
from not so far away.
“Where can I find some food?!” he asked loudly no one specific. He still
pulled the green-haired one in tow, who looked kind of depressed himself for
another reason, but did not fight his friend’s hands.
“Like I already said,” explained Nami again, now however slightly snappish.
“Tomorrow we should be able to set sail again. Until then I just want to relax
a little. So far that is even possible with Luffy,”
Named boy vanished at this moment with his attachment from their eyes behind
some building, but his noisy voice revealed his whereabouts just too easy.
“What a strange island. There is almost nobody around here.” Noted the
musician of the gang, looking around carefully.
In fact the pirate had not met a single soul yet, neither at the harbor, nor at
the entrance of the village. Even now, where they were already deep inside of
the tight streets of buildings, they had only seen a few shopkeepers.
All of them were selling more or less the same stuff, Music instruments.
The tail of their little procession just stopped by one of them and regarded the
display.
“Bonjour.” The seller greeted them polite and bowed sharply.
“How can I help you, madam?” His eyes focused on the beautiful archeologist
and almost ignored her unusual company. The skeleton used that moment to take a
closer look at some violin strings.
The black-haired lady nodded softly. “You do not now by accident, why there is
not one living being in this marvelous town?” she asked with a little spark in
her eyes.
The citizen smiled widely. “Well of course. Sure, as a tourist you do not
know, that today will be our weekly music festival.”
Nami, Usopp and Sanji stopped as well and listened to the conversation more or
less interested.
“A weekly music festival?” repeated the cook skeptical. “Isn’t that way
too often?”
Laughing loudly the guy with the long beard shook his head. “How can you say
that? There could be never enough music in this world. Here, on Melodia,
everybody loves music, so of course we are celebrating it always. This island is
never quiet, except for the day of the music festival. On this special day we
honor the silence until the sun goes down, so that we may never forget the worth
of music. You should really stay until tonight to celebrate with us.”
The crew thanked him for his information before taking up the hunt of their
crewmembers.
The cannoneer tapped his nose, caught in thoughts.
“Melodia, what a well-fitting name.” he mumbled ironically.
“Unoriginal.” Robin agreed.
“Still, I don’t get, why nobody is en route.” worried the little
reindeer.
Sanji looked down on him, thinking. “That’s probably part of this music
festival. The people wait in their homes, until it’s evening and they can
celebrate.”
The small group just reached a crossway, unsure which way to take to find their
captain plus attachment, when exactly this person showed up, the swordsman still
tagged along.
“Nami! ” Luffy cried out desperately and filled with panic.
Immediately everybody got tense an expected the worst to happen, until they
noticed the bored look of Mr. Green-hair.
“What’s going on?” asked the navigator still worried.
“It’s so horrible!” screamed the young captain in pain, while finally
letting go of his first crewmember, just to throw himself to the orange-haired
girl, who escaped in the last second.
Babbling wild stuff with a moanful voice, the strawhat cowered miserable on the
ground.
Confused everybody exchanged looks, before paying attention to the swordfighter,
who massaged annoyed his strained wrist.
“What is wrong with him? What happened?” wondered now Usopp unsure, while
Chopper rushed to his captain and ran in circles around him, filled with panic.
Zoro shrugged his shoulders.
“Apparently all food-stores are closed til this evening.” He answered cold
and ignored fullheartedly the pitiful wimp next to him, who cried out in pain by
his last words. 
“Only those music-stores are open.” Closing his announcement over the loud
sobbing of his friend.
Sanji nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, that’s because of the music festival, which
is…”
“You’re wasting your breath, Cockroach.” He was interrupted abruptly by
the green-hair.
“We know, what’s going on.”
More than angry Sanji wanted to reply something really fitting, but Brook was
faster.
“How? There is no one around you could have asked.”
Zoro folded his arms and shrugged his shoulders again. “There was an old
barkeeper. He invited all of us for tonight to celebrate after he saw our
desperate captain.”
Suddenly Luffy rose back to his feed.
“What an awesome idea.  We will have so much fun!” he unexpectedly yelled
in pure excitement.
Naturally not everyone agreed to that option.
The skeptical navigator and the wary cannoneer scented a trap behind that
invitation. The cook one the other hand was more skeptical about finding the way
back to that club. Neither Luffy nor Zoro were well known for their sense of
direction.
Meanwhile the discussion did not last that long and in the end the decision was
made.
 
At Sunset the whole crew left their beloved Thousand Sunny.
“Are you really sure, that our little Sunny will be all right, if we all
leave?” It was the last, desperate try of the longnosed one to stay on board.
He was well aware of the fact, that he might miss one great party, but the risk
felt so much higher, that he would prefer the safety of the ship.
Luffy only answered with a loud laugh and tried for one more time, to drag the
swordfighter along with him. But this time the other was fast enough to dodge
his rubberarm, unlike the unlucky navigator.
With different speed the group reached the small village, now heated up with
happy voices and working sounds. Countless people hurried down the streets to
prepare everything for the festival. They decorated the houses and streets with
lanterns and glittering festoons.
The laughing voices of children and the happy conversation of the elders swept
through the air, while tables and chairs were brought outside.
After only a few steps the crew reached a huge desk, close to the main street.
On top where hundreds, maybe even thousands of small, little snail shells.
Behind them was the tall and bearded man from earlier that day, waving
agitated.
“Hey you guys! You’re the tourists from this morning.” He smiled widely.
“Why don’t you come over? Welcome to our great music festival. I do hope you
will like it. As soon as the sun is gone it will start.”
Curios the skeleton with the afro-hair took a look at the display. “What are
those?” he asked, pointing one boney finger at the shells.
The bearded man laughed softly. “Well, those are our sonar snails. I always
sell them at the festival. There is nothing I don’t have and of course just
from the best musicians of the world.”
Confused Sanji picked one of the strange snails up. “Uh, so what can they
actually do?”
“Music, what else?” The answer came from an older woman, who showed up next
to him, putting another box under the table.
“You can record music with them and they will never forget it. The small in
front all have saved one song and cost around 500 Berry. The bigger ones are
able to remember up to 20 songs and cost between 1,000 and 20,000 Berry. If the
bottom is white, they are with vocals; if it’s black it’s only
instrumental.”
Now also Usopp got interested. “So that means they are something like tone
dials, aren’t they?”
The older lady shook her head. “I don’t know, what tone dials are, but if
they play music, well, I guess sure.”
“Cool! Can I eat some?” Like a hyperactive gummybear the young captain
jumped from Usopp to Sanji and back.
“Of course you cannot!” barked the navigator and used one stroke with her
fist to bring him down.
 The salesman laughed again, obviously happy about the positive energy from the
bunch of strangers.
After a closer look to the patch-work party he nodded. “You know what? Because
you are here for the very first time, each of you can choose one of the sonar
snails up to 2,000 Berry as a gift from me. Just take a look. The title of the
recorded song is written on the back.”
“Really? That’s so cool!” the little reindeer seemed more than grateful.
But the tall man already wasn’t listening anymore, because he tried to explain
his graciousness to his not happy looking wife.
Filled up with enthusiasm all of the crewmembers searched for a fitting gift.
Of course Nami used up the whole price range and found one medium snail in
turquoise with little yellow dots. Chopper, Luffy, and Usopp did not take long
to find something they liked. Also Franky and Sanji did not need much time to
make a good decision.
Only Robin and Brook seemed to have problems in between the thousand different
possibilities.
At this moment the cook noticed, that the swordfighter was not even trying to
look for his present, but had shoved his hands deep inside of his pockets,
watching his young friends playing with the snails.
“What’s wrong, Marimo? Did the algae fill up your ears? Take one?”
The green eyes looked at him annoyed. “Just shut up, curly eyebrows. I’m not
interested in music!”
Suddenly it all went quiet. All the working noises went silent and all of the
surrounding citizens starred at them in shock. Friendly eyes turned into
distrust. The people of the village whispered quietly to each other, regarding
the strangers suspiciously.
“Just take one, will ya stupid?” Sanji snarled, slowly getting nervous over
the new anxiety.
“Why should…? Uh!” Zoro could not even finish his question, when Nami
already slammed her elbow in between his ribs.
“Just take on damn snail and say ‘thank you’, got it? The people are
watching!” she hissed between gritted teeth. It was easy to see, that the
swordsman did not really care about the starry crowd, but the angry look of the
navigator was enough, to make even a fearless man wince.
Growling silent curses over his crewmates, the swordfighter stepped closer to
the table and started to check up one or two of them, before sliding one into
the depths of his pockets. He nodded sharply and turned away. Meanwhile Brook
was still not able to choose between two quite different looking snails. After
another five minutes or so, the seller showed mercy and gave him both.
 
The sun was gone long ago.
The beer flowed like water and the visitors were high-spirited.
After half an hour searching, the crew was finally able to find that stupid
club, the captain wanted to visit. To some surprise they were greeted like old
friends and got the first drinks for free.
Since that moment the strawhats enjoyed their time off. Indulged in the alcohol,
the food, the pretty ladies and the music. All of them were having a good time.
Already after a short while the skeleton and the ship’s carpenter had left
them to group up with other musicians. Usopp on the other hand had piled up two
tables on each other, and stood on top to sing down to the crowd, accompanied by
the dancing Luffy and Chopper.
In the other corner of the club the rest of the crew was sitting at their table.
Nami, being more than embarrassed, tried to ignore her crewmates so that by now
she had seated herself next to the quiet swordsman, who finished one bottle of
beer after another.
The chair on his other side was occupied by Robin, glancing amused from one of
her friends to another, while slowly drinking her wine.
On the opposite part of the table cowered the pitiful cook. Jealous he watched
the Marimo, surrounded by the most beautiful beings of the world, without even
noticing it. Sure he knew that it had been his own fault, but still…
Shortly after they had arrived at the club, he had been taken away by some
pretty girls from the island to another table. There he had spent some glorious
hours, but slowly, one girl after another hat left him to dance with some other
guys.
But his sadness had only lasted for a few seconds, until he remembered the
gorgeous beauties of his own crew. So it was only naturally, that he rushed
right back to them, only to see his most feared nightmare coming alive.
In his reality he had to witness, how Robin seduced the swordsman with
lascivious eyes, while Nami drank in the sexiest way possible from his beer
before gliding with her tongue over her cherry-red lips. The swordfighter had
placed one arm around each hip and smiled pleasurably.
Of course the real world had not much in common, but that did not bother the
cook, who watched the trespassers with a broken heart.
Suddenly a boisterous squeaking echoed through the room and everybody spooked.
The old barkeeper climbed up the self-made stage of the cannoneer and pushed him
down with one single movement. In his hand he held a microphone seemingly from
the stone-age.
By now all eyes were on him, ignoring the suffering Usopp, and the music
stopped.
“Good evening, my dear friends!”  the clubmaster yelled into his scepter.
Wild applause greeted him.
“Now it’s time. You all know for what!”
The rejoicing grew bigger and bigger.
“The rules are like always!” the crispy voice of the barkeeper sounded from
the speakers. “The one, holding the scepter of music has to sing!”
Meanwhile the whole audience was caught up in some state of ecstasy.
“Well then. Have fun and let’s go with Karaoke!”
“Karaoke!” the choir responded loudly.
Only seconds later the music went on again and the barkeeper threw the
microphone high in the air.
Screaming women tried to catch it like some strange bridal bouquet.
“What a riot.” Complained the swordsman while reaching for his bottle, just
to realize that it was empty. “Where’s the waiter?”
Named person just found his hands on the scepter of music and tried to give his
best performance. The crowd clapped amused.
“What a nice folk.” Commented the archeologist next to him with a silent
smile.
In this very moment nobody else, but the captain of the strawhat-pirates reached
out for the microphone. More laughing than actually singing he missed half of
the notes, but nobody really cared for it, while he sang and danced, grinning
like a child.
The audience grew even louder, celebrating the young boy, who was able to turn
even this sad song over loss and mourning into a partyversion.
Luffy himself had already jumped on the self-made stage, singing and dancing
even wilder. After a short while he took Usopp and Chopper up to him. Now all
three of them were performing like the oddest boygroup of the world, which made
especially the girls scream.  They got faster and faster, so that the music was
not really able to follow and the tables wobbled dangerously, but nobody
noticed, while they all clapped their hands and celebrated the three boys up in
the air.
Some couples had gathered in front of the stage and danced impetuous.
Sanji could not help but gasp, when the beautiful black-haired Robin got up and
asked with offering a hand “May I have the next dance with you?”
But even though he was already up, almost reaching for her hand, her offering
was not meant for him, but for the stubborn mosshead, who simply looked at her
with a raised eyebrow.
“No,” he rejected cold. “I’m not interested in dancing.”
He did not quite end his sentence, when Nami pushed him from behind, right into
the arms of the archeologist, who sprouted some extra arms to catch him in an
elegant way. Growling lowly the green-haired followed his crewmate to the other
dancers and placed his arms clumsily around her hip, way too high, for Sanji’s
taste.
In this moment the brilliant idea came to his mind, to ask the navigator for a
dance. But of course he was too late. He did not even open his mouth, when a
longpulled hand reached out for Nami and threw her right into the arms of her
captain, who was still on top of the stage.
Almost in rage Nami wanted to knock Luffy down from the tables, even under the
old tiles of this club, but then he offered her the microphone and she remained
silent.
Everybody of the crew knew how she loved to sing, even if she would never admit
it, so it happened that her lovely voice swept through the air and joined the
music.
Now only the pitiful cook was left at the table to watch his friends.
Franky and Brook were playing music as if their lives were at stake, Nami and
the chaos-trio sang and danced from the top of their stage. They seemed really
happy.
Slowly Sanji moved his gaze to the dancers. Robin’s hair swirled through the
air and she smiled breathtaking, while being spun throughout the room by the
swordsman. His face was motionless and stiff, but his movements were fluent and
elegant, like he had never done anything else in his life.
Yes, they all seemed to have a really good time, even the stupid Marimo, only
Sanji was stuck at their table like a picture of misery and did not know what to
do. But lucky him, he was not alone.
Before he was able to drown in self-pity, his captain waved to him and stretched
out his rubber-arm.
Within a blink of an eye he was next to his friends on the stage, who were
singing their hearts out. Then Nami gave him the microphone.
For half a second he froze, starring at it, before taking it with a smile, while
the crowd requested him to sing in a never ending chorus.
Luckily the alcohol and the audience had given him confidence and the
world-known lyrics were easy to remember, so he took on the musical scepter and
told a story of love and doubt.
The listeners reached a euphoric status and clapped loudly.
“I didn’t know you could sing!” yelled Usopp in his ear to drown the
music.
The party continued. Sanji and Nami shared the microphone, always accompanied by
the wanna-be-boy-group. Right in front of them on the floor were Robin and Zoro,
still dancing. Sometimes it was obvious that the mosshead did not know the
steps, but the lady leaded him nonetheless and they always looked amazing. In
laughter she followed the music and even the swordsman could not hide his
smile.
Sanji was in the middle of an unbelievable good airguitar-solo, when suddenly
one of the tablelegs broke.
Nami, still holding the microphone, cried out in surprise, but her scream was
easily covered by Usopp, who screamed in fear while falling to the ground.
Letting out a loud laugh, Luffy reached out for one of the chandeliers, caught
his navigator and landed safely between the lamps. Sanji meanwhile grabbed the
small reindeer and got both of them safe and sound out of the crumbling stage.
Leaving only the cannoneer buried under wood and dust.
The crowd fell silent and watched in awe, how the microphone flew through the
air and landed in the outstretched hand of the surprised archeologist, who just
had turned out of the arms of the green-haired one. The cheering of the audience
grew louder, as Robin shrugged her shoulders and turned back into the arms of
the swordsman before lifting the scepter to her lips and started singing.
Zoros face was still cold and almost bored, but he followed the fluid motions of
his dancepartner, while being watched by everyone and Robin telling a sad
ballade about the loss of a loved one. Both of them moved to the slow rhythm and
it seemed like they did not care or maybe did not even notice the looks, that
were stuck upon them.
After a while the music changed to a faster song and again Robin turned out of
Zoros arms, still singing with her husky, man-eating voice. Then suddenly she
turned around and threw the microphone to her friend.
“Catch it, swordfighter!” she demanded in the most lovely way possible.
The cook could clearly see how the other one almost grew a few inches as he drew
in some air and placed his fingers around the black scepter. For a moment he
just stood there, uncertain what to do, the cheering grew louder and louder,
making it impossible for the pirate hunter to back down. So he grabbed his new
deadly weapon with two hands, held his breath for a second and opened his
mouth.
In the next moment everyone tried hectically to cover their ears. Muttered
complaints rose quickly and people were painfully shaking their heads.
The eyes of the black-haired lady grew big, filled with horror and desperation,
while an ear-piercing squeal rushed through the speakers. One of them crackled
fatally before dying in a cloud of smoke.
“Zoro killed a speaker with his voice!” Luffy laughed and jumped town to his
crewmate.
“Luffy!” Nami screamed angrily. “Get me down, now!” while still hanging
on the chandelier.   
Meanwhile the swordsman still tried with closed eyes to at least get one note
right, failing in every possible way, while a second speaker died.
Worried that he might become deaf, Sanji hurried through the crowd and ripped
the microphone away from the dead-bringing hands of the other one.
The surrounding people sighed in relief.
“What the hell are you doing, Marimo?! Do you want to kill us with your
howling, you moron?!”
“What? Dare to say that again?!” Zoro barked right back.
“Seems like your ears already quitted their job, you stupid, deaf mosshead.”
Sanji responded even louder.
Zoros answer was silent by the restarting music, slowly people picked up their
conversations again and the mood lightened up. The swordsman and the cook
continued their little battle until finally their captain jumped in and ordered
beer for everyone.
The next glamorous hours spun away in a blink of an eye, the new topic of the
evening was Zoro with his lament and none of his crewmates missed the
opportunity to make fun of his special talent.
As the night continued no one was surprised, that Zoro was the first one leaving
the club. And no one was surprised that he got lost on the way back to the ship
and happened to be last one to hit the bunk.
For sure, he would live to rue this evening.
 
They had left the island Melodia already weeks ago.
Still the small presents could be heard every once in a while, often accompanied
by happy voices. Naturally the swordsman tried to back off as much as possible
whenever a sonar snail was turned on,  but without any success thanks to his
caring crew, who could not stop reminding him of that significant night.
Although he would have loved to bury this topic forever, he could not prevent to
be chaffed up about his weakness by his friends. Especially the cook himself
used his new knowledge in the meanest ways against his best enemy. In the middle
of a fight he would start singing or covering his ears, because Zoros voice was
too deadly.
With the flow of days the teasing weakened slowly and everybody was looking
forward to the upcoming island, but the sonar snails made it impossible to
really forget the karaoke-evening.
“Oh, somehow I feel really guilty.” Robin sighed softly without any remorse
in her voice, stirring her coffee. “After all it was me, who gave him the
microphone.”
Nami was sitting next to her at the already set up breakfast-table and had just
turned off her sonar snail.
“Well, you could not have known, that our manly Zoro sounds like a dying
raccoon.” She replied coldly.
“Downright.” The cook agreed, bringing the last plate to the already full
table. “At least now we know why he was called the demon of the east blue.”
“That’s not nice.” He was scolded by Usopp, who just entered the room.
“But true!” Luffy laughed, rushed through the door, over his friends head,
right to his beloved spotted place for breakfast.
“And yet I was so confident that Mr. Swordsman is good in singing…” the
archeologist whispered more to herself than to anybody else.
“Still, there are worse things, than not being able to sing.” Nami shrugged
her shoulders.
“Yeah, right.” The rubberboy laughed. “Like blowing up a speaker with your
own voice.”
“Luffy!” yelled Nami and Usopp at once, neither of them able to hide their
grinning.
Then they suddenly looked away as the phantom of the opera himself made the
appearance and fell on his chair next to his captain. Even though he did not say
anything, he knew just too well, what his friends were talking about.
One by one the last crewmates entered the room and the breakfast went on like
any normal day.
 
Only a few days later they reached the next island.
Before Nami was even able to ask, who was going to stay with their Sunny, the
swordsman had already disappeared in the lookout.
Laughing over his odd behavior, the rest of them left the ship, remembering the
embarrassing show of Zoro before they split up and took on the island.
Because it had been almost impossible to stock up the supply on Melodia, Sanji
was really looking forward to spend the whole day at the market. He wanted to
buy all they needed and even more, after all no one knew what they might face on
the Grand Line.
In the beginning he had been grocery shopping by himself. Sure he missed a
burro, but at least no one was interrupting him dealing with some stupid slogans
like “Well, the price does not really matter.” Or “Please, please, please,
Sanji. Please buy it!” or even better. “Oh, I’m sorry, I already ate it.
Hahaha!” so that he was faster cone with his to-do-list than he expected.
At the end of his trip he met Robin and Chopper, who had spent the afternoon in
a library.
Together they wanted to head back to the ship, both of them had used plenty of
money, so it would be best, to put the expensive books somewhere safe, before
their navigator could see them.
“Where’s Nami anyway? I thought she was with you.” Sanji asked his
friends.
“She wanted to accompany our cannoneer, who was going to buy a special clock.
Seems to take longer checking out the prices.” Robin laughed friendly and as
always a little bit mysterious.
Just in this moment, the strange duo showed up around the next corner, arguing
noisily.
“That’s way too expensive, Usopp. Why waste over 10,000 Berry for a clock,
when you can already buy a used one for 200.” She hissed angry, slapping her
fist in her hand.
“This isn’t a normal clock, you know. It’s able to recharge itself and
adapts itself to different time-zones. A few more Berrys should not matter.”
“A few Berrys?!” she screamed almost insane.
Meanwhile they had almost reached their other crewmates.
“Uh, Nami seems to be really in a bad mood. If she sees our books, we’ll be
dead for sure.” Fearful the little reindeer tried to hide behind Robin.
“Indeed, she sure is energetic.” She agreed, still smiling.
Sanji on the other hand just thought how amazingly the rage fitted Nami and made
her look even more stunning, but he as well would love to avoid that rage to be
turned on him.
“Let’s go, Chopper. We bring all of the books and the other stuff to the
ship. Robin darling, would you be so kind, to distract the lovely Nami for a
moment?”
“It’s my pleasure.” She accepted his request, gave him her bags, with the
most beautiful smile and turned to the odd couple, still arguing.
Chopper and Sanji used this second leave unseen.
With hurried steps they made it back to the Thousand Sunny.
“I bet Zoro will be happy, that we returned earlier.” The young doctor
hoped.
With a grin Sanji shook his head. “For sure not. Little Marimo loves his
solitude.”
On board it was quiet, not a single soul to be seen.
“So where is our stupid mosshead?” Sanji wondered. But he was not really
that worried, that he would actually look for his crewmate. Somewhere on this
ship he was probably lost, if he had to guess, he would suspect the lookout.
Followed by Chopper he entered the kitchen and filled up the storeroom, while
the reindeer brought his shopping into the pharmacy behind the dining-room.
Together they made it to the library, putting the books away, before going back
to the island.
Sanji liked this room. It was quiet and smelled of paper and lavender, a little
bit like Robin. Moving calmly he set all the books of Robin on one unused
table.
“Do you hear that?” he was asked by his little friend, who was still holding
one of his books.
“Hear what?”
“Well this, sounds like a guitar.” The reindeer guessed, looking around
confused.
Thoughtful Sanji folded his arms.
“From where is it coming?” Of course the ears of the doctor were way more
sensitive than his own.
Carefully Chopper walked through the room, finally stopping at the ladder,
leading up to the bathroom.
“From up there.” He almost whispered worried.
“You think somebody broke in?” His voice was just a scared hint.
“To go playing guitar in the bathroom? Sure not.” Sanji answered, lifting a
curly eyebrow. With a sigh he passed the distance to the reindeer, nodded one
time and then reached up for the ladder.
When he arrived at the top, he was finally able to hear the guitar as well, from
the other side of the wall, from the bathroom. While he wondered, if Franky had
made it back before them, also Chopper climbed up and entered the
changing-room.
They exchanged a glance and Sanji went for the door, putting one hand on the
handle, almost pushing it down, when suddenly the person on the other side of
the wall started singing.
Shocked both pirates stared at each other.
A dark, vibrating voice told a melancholy story in a foreign language, filled
with happiness and sadness.
Sanji let go of the handle. A shiver went down his spine, while he himself slid
down the back of the door, next to the sitting reindeer.
“You think it’s…” he was not even able to finish his whispered
question.
“Yes, I believe so.” Chopper nodded almost soundless.
“Unbelievable.” The cook admitted in awe.
“Beautiful.”
For a time, that could have been forever those two were sitting at that door,
listening to the chant. After a while the song ended and a new, brighter one
started.
Here as well, the deep, raspy voice told the story, now though it was warmer and
somewhat gentle.
Suddenly Choppers ear twitched.
“The others have come back.” He whispered silently.
Before Sanji could say something, the little doctor vanished through the
hatchway.
 
A few minutes later the complete crew sat in the little changing-room, listening
to the swordsman on the other side of the door.
All, except for the inwardly laughing Luffy, were quiet and enjoyed this
peaceful moment.
Robin was leaning against the wall, eyes closed. Brook cowered right next to her
on the ground, his afro-head placed on his bony knees to listen in a relaxed
state.
Franky, walking across the room, sneezed in a huge handkerchief. “Who could
have known that Zoro-bro could have such a super voice?” he mumbled softly.
Usopp was sitting in front of Sanji and Chopper, his back against the opposite
wall, drawing unseen pictures on the ground.
“Well, no wonder. In that club in Melodia he was only able to melt a
speaker.”
Again Luffy could not hold his laugh, but was immediately shut up by Nami.
“You think, he wanted to take us in by that?” Chopper asked a little bit
hurt.
“Don’t think so, it was too horrifying for a joke.” The navigator
responded.
Robin nodded. “I assume our brave swordsman is just a little bit stage
frightened.”
Mean smiles crossed the faces of all being present.
The idea, of the fearless pirate hunter, being scarred of singing in front of an
audience, was more than a sweet excuse.
In peace with the world all of them laid back and listened to the swordsman from
the other side of the door.
For another time Luffy tried to silence his laughter while grinning widely.
“What’s going on with you?” Sanji asked him half-worried.
But his captain just shook his head.
“I think it’s really funny. We are all sitting here while Zoro is taking a
shower. He will be so happy, when he comes out, naked.”
In that very moment the door behind Sanji’s and Chopper’s backs moved slowly
away, and both fell on the hard ground, looking up at the majestic pride of the
swordsman.
The loud laughter of the captain filled the air around the Thousand Sunny,
followed by the angry voice of the swordsman.
It was just a normal day, more or less…
 
 
 

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