Chapter 7.2

"CROSS!" Sanji growled, walking furiously towards me. -I can understand why a fool with a crown, but how dare you lock the door on such a poor lady as...?

"SHH!" I hissed, pressing my finger to my lips.

The cook froze in mortal shock. -Did you just tut at me!?

- Yes, and I will do it again! "Keep quiet." Before Sanji could respond, I glanced at Soundbite. -Give us some white noise, okay? No chance.

Soundbite nodded firmly and concentrated for a moment before making a grinding motion with his teeth. As a result, I heard a faint combination of buzzing and gurgling coming from behind the door of the room.

Nami stared at me in confusion. -Cross, what are you doing? No chance of what?

"I guess he means that these two had no chance of overhearing me tell you how dangerous they really are, right Cross?" Zoro asked bluntly.

I nodded and snapped my fingers and pointed at him. -Exactly.

Now it was Usopp's turn to blink in confusion. -Wait, Zoro, do you really know anything about them!? And... dangerous? You are sure? I mean, sure, they used to have those guns, but we left them with Crocus! How dangerous can they really be?

"Yes, Zoro!" Luffy muttered, not looking up from the full bowl of food he was stuffing into his mouth. -They are funny, not scary!

"On your own?" Zoro pointed his chin at the door. -Yes, they do not pose much of a threat. What worries me is where they belong. Tell me... - He slowly looked around the team. -Have any of you ever heard the name "Baroque Works"?

Everyone, including me, blinked in confusion, thinking for a moment before shaking their heads.

Zoro snorted and shrugged, beginning to scratch the back of his head. "I would be surprised if they could... A few years ago, when I was still a bounty hunter, a man approached me - not in this damn sense!" he growled furiously, seeing Sanji grinning maliciously. -The man wanted to recruit me into an organization he was a part of because of my skills. When I refused, he didn't take it very well. He tried to kill me, all because I found out about the existence of his organization.

"This organization was Baroque Works," Nami guessed.

"And that man's name was Mr. 7," Zoro finished.

This made the rest of the team tense up nervously.

"After this incident..." Zoro continued with a sigh. -I decided to do a little research to find out who these Baroque Works people were, in case they come after me again. Not too thorough, I didn't want to attract attention, but enough to give me a general understanding. Simply put, Baroque Works is a crime syndicate that prides itself on secrecy. All their agents have code names, men with numbers and women with days, and the identity and whereabouts of their boss are completely unknown.

"They have a huge number of operatives who work in the East and South Blue and the Grand Line, and they have countless resources to work with." Zoro looked into the eyes of each of us, one by one. -Make no mistake: Baroque Works is a dangerous organization that you should not mess with.

We all fell silent, absorbing the information and pondering its implications. Well, I said everything, but in reality Luffy just continued to eat, oblivious to the seriousness of the situation.

Sanji finally swallowed and put a nervous smile on his face. -C-okay, it can't be that bad?

"Y-yes!" Usopp nodded furiously, desperately trying to find at least some bright side in the situation. -Y-y-in the end, you managed to defeat that 7th guy, right? Is not it!?

Zoro winced slightly, rubbing the back of his head. -Yes... that guy was a real actor. He went from being friendly to trying to chop my head off in less than a second. If there had not been a bottle nearby, and I had hesitated for a second, then... - He ran his finger along his neck.

We fell into silence again, pondering the dangerous facts. Finally Sanji hissed, taking a deep drag from his cigarette. -You think it's a trap, right?

- Usually, criminals do not care about the well-being and hunger of other people...

"Unless they're ours, right, right..." Nami groaned, irritably kneading her temples. -Perfect. Just... great! - She threw a fierce look at our captain. -Thank you very much, Luffy!

"You're welcome!" Luffy perked up for a moment, and then tilted his head to the side in confusion. -But... what did I do?

"Because of you and your whim, we found ourselves ambushed by a multinational criminal organization," I summed up categorically before Nami could explode and try to strangle the poor bastard.

- ABOUT! Then yes please!

"WE DIDN'T THANK YOU, YOU DAMN BASTARD!" Nami, Usopp and Sanji roared.

Zoro winced and poked his little finger in his ear. -Shh, guys.

"Loud, isn't it?" I grimaced, patting my ear with my palm. -We need a doctor on this ship, I need to get checked out because of tinnitus.

"And a musician!" Luffy quickly said.

"I don't need music if I can't hear it, captain."

"Besides..." Nami pointed her thumb at the silent snail on my shoulder. -Can't he replace a musician?

I raised an eyebrow in response. -Do you think that the sounds he makes can be considered music...

- SO WHAT DOES A FOX SOUND?

- WA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PAW, WA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PAW

"EC!" I jumped as Soundbite's "voice" roared in my ears.

"On this issue, I agree with the Communist..." Usopp grumbled darkly, looking at my shoulder.

"Anyway!" Zoro intervened. -The thing is, when we get to that Whiskey Peak, we all need to be on our guard. Don't trust anyone, and don't say a word about it to those two outside. It's clear?

We all nodded and murmured agreement.

"Great!" I resolutely clapped my hands. -Now, maybe we should distribute what's left of our food among ourselves before Luffy finishes clearing our plates, huh?

- Yeah... WAIT, WHAT!? LUFFY!

WHACK! CRACK! BAM!

- AH!

I chuckled as Luffy and Sanji got into an impromptu fight before I felt a tap on my shoulder. -Wha... Oh, yeah, sure, you can stop, Soundbite.

The snail sighed heavily as it stopped its manipulations, then glanced at me. -We're up to our ears in shit, right?

I shrugged in response. -This is the Grand Line, my friend. With a few exceptions, everything about him is trying to kill you.

-o-

- HURRAH! Hurray! Welcome!

My eye twitched violently when I saw a huge crowd of people in front of me, roaring and screaming at the top of their lungs. To their credit, despite knowing that almost all of these people were cold-blooded killers who would cut our throats without a second thought, their greetings still sounded almost sincere to my ears.

Although to the rest of the team they definitely sounded sincere.

- Shishishi! And you guys were worried! - Luffy chuckled and waved his hand happily.

"You idiots scared us for nothing!" Usopp exclaimed, blowing kisses to the crowd. -Pirates are heroes for these people! Heroes! WOOH!

- HELLO, MY LOVELY ones! - Sanji fell into a state of love, completely and infinitely captured by his "hurricane of love."

I stared blankly at the trio prancing around on the lower deck before plastering a smile on my face and turning my attention to the other two crew members who were with me on the upper deck. -Bait?

"Bait," Zoro and Nami answered in unison.

"Oh-wey..." I shook my head with a sigh. -I'll sneak away and ask Soundbite to listen to everyone who's planning something behind the scenes when the opportunity arises. I hope the team will be able to not give themselves away when I start speaking into their ears. But for now! - I straightened up and raised my hand in the air.

"Smile and wave, guys," Soundbite announced through a grin. -Smile and wave.

-o-

"So, further along the corridor and the third door on the right?" I answered over my shoulder, leaving the room where the party was noisy.

"Yes, you won't pass by!" confirmed one of the merry bounty hunters.

"Great, thank you!" I gave him a thumbs up and walked away, staggering purposefully and bumping into walls. Thank God these guys were clearly overacting; thanks to the commotion, none of them noticed that most, if not all, of the drinks I drank were spilling out of my mouth onto the floor rather than being drunk.

When I reached the restroom, I forced myself in, locked the door behind me, and collapsed onto the seat with relief. I didn't want to stay there any longer than necessary; the parties were... not really my style. At least not as crazy as this one. Not yet... I shook my head decisively. Now is not the time to feel awkward, it is time to get to work.

I placed Soundbite on my knee and smiled down at him. -Well, my friend, are you ready for illegal wiretapping?

"That's right!" He nodded decisively.

- Okay then... - I put the headphones on my ears. -Give me a general quick overview of the city, everything that happens not in this before... in the room where the party is. And remember the volume. Don't blow my eardrums.

Soundbite nodded again, his ears stretching considerably as he concentrated.

A second later, a stream of sounds filled my ears: the chirping of crickets, the gurgling of water, the crunching of gravel, the howling of the wind... and most importantly, voices.

"Okay, okay, can you hear those two guys who sound like they're above us?" I asked.

Soundbite looked up for a moment before focusing on a specific source of noise.

I listened for a moment before shaking my head. -No, no, they just went to get another keg because of how quickly Zoro drinks. I meant others... - I cut myself off when I heard the right voices again, and easily understood what they were saying.

"Jackpot," I nodded to myself. -Okay, connect me to the team, just be careful.

Soundbite closed his eyes for a moment, then opened his eyes and nodded decisively. "C-Click!"

I pressed the headphone microphone to my ear. -Don't react, don't say a word, just keep doing what you're doing. I'm in the restroom now, using Soundbite to talk to you. He puts my words directly into your ears, so that no one but you can hear me. Now listen: I got a little curious, so I asked Soundbite to listen a little, and I heard something interesting. Soundbite, let them hear it.

"K-click!" Soundbite repeated clearly before starting to play the voices I had heard before.

-... how long will we have to wait, motherfucker!? I'm sick of this crap, I can't wait to start!

- Not yet, damn it. They're still conscious, and I'm not going to go against Roronoa-fucking-Zoro while he's still sober. We were able to pull it off for so long because we always did everything right.

- Ergh, but still...

- Listen, guy, don't worry. I'm sure it won't be long before they get too drunk. And then, when they pass out, they will be shackled and sent straight to the Marines for a hefty price! And it's worth it, right?

-... hmm, well, yes. You're right here. Hey, hand me that rifle. I don't think I've cleaned his shaft yet.

- Here you are. By the way, did you see what Miss Wednesday wore? I swear, no matter how much of a bitch and an ice queen she is, this girl is just fire...!

"Okay, that's more than enough!" I frantically waved my hand at my neck. Soundbite gave in to a lustful giggle. -Be that as it may, I think you understand my point. Now, here's how I propose to do it...

Before I could say anything else, there was a loud cracking sound followed by a very familiar -RAAAAAAA!

I cursed, smacked Soundbite on the shoulder, jumped up and left the cabin.

- Damn it, Luffy, do you even know the word hit...! - I cut myself off when I jerked open the door from the restroom and came face to face with a thin man who was just about to open the door himself, and also froze in place, probably due to the sudden commotion and the fact that I was obviously still sober as a glass.

As we looked at each other, I had two different reactions.

Internally, I berated and berated myself with reckless abandon. "Presumably drunk, isolated - perfect target for attack, STUPID!"

Externally, on the other hand...

"You should get some air freshener here as soon as possible." Believe me, the biscuit is a scourge for my stomach, it smells simply killer.

Luckily, the surprisingly coherent string of words made the man jump in surprise, giving me just enough time to slam my right foot right between his legs. When the guy started to fall, I reached into my jacket pocket with my right hand, grabbed the baton that Smoker gave me, and hit the guy in the temple with a metal rod, dropping him to the floor.

Breathing heavily, I looked at the man's prone and groaning body for a moment, and then kicked him in the face again. Caution never hurts.

Well, it hurt him, but that was the whole point of the idea, so I didn't think much of it.

I stood there silently for a moment, catching my breath again, before reaching out and absentmindedly poking Soundbite. -You know what, Luffy? Forget what I said about being smart, these guys are complete assholes. Who is in favor of breaking everyone and everything right here and now, say yes.

A second roar erupted from what was left of the party room, followed by the rapid shaking of the entire building from the powerful impact.

I sighed heavily and tilted my head forward impatiently, an intoxicating smile spreading across my face. -I'll take that as a yes! Well, you heard the captain! FORWARD!

And with these words, I rushed straight into the fray, and Soundbite blew his horn as he went.