42 Chapter 42 | Metting a Yonko! Or a possible future one, maybe?

42

Nami hid behind a wall, climbing it in a way, to get a better view of the fight…which was over. The three men had been beaten easily, but she wondered what Luffy did with his finger.

She had only seen him point his hand in a child's finger pistol motion, before the canon ball exploded. Did he fire off a bullet from his finger… how was that even possible.

Was that the legendary Devil Fruit power that Arlong and his men talked about? She had a lot of questions…

Luffy seemed to notice her, so she had to get down. And act naturally. "Thanks, by the way," she said, trying not to be nervous. "Nice job kicking their asses!" She hesitated, then added, "Mind if I treat you to some food? I have a proposition for you!"

No, she wasn't going to ask for him to fight Arlong just yet. She wanted to gouge his strength first. She didn't want to send the boy to his death.

"Sure why not…" Luffy nodded in agreement. Despite knowing what this would lead to, he wasn't about to turn down free food.

Nami winched when she remembered how much food Luffy ate. Yeah, that wasn't a good offer in her part. But anyways what done is done… she would need to think of something later.

"Let's form an alliance." She said, before explaining.

Luffy was tuned out at the moment, so he just nodded, he was thinking about other stuff.

Like how it would be a hassle to explain Haki if the marines got the wind of it. Garp wasn't a person who would put that info on the table, but if he used Haki willy-nilly and people recognized it, he would be in trouble.

He wasn't worried about the Marines, but some Paradise pirate having Haki users got leaked, they would put a huge target on their back. Luffy wasn't against a good challenge, but his crewmates were barely ready for it.

And he didn't want that until he made his crewmates strong enough. So he had to kill any potential leaks on that info. It would be best to not use them, willy nilly.

Nami for the most part needed to be strong, even after Wano she didn't gain any kind of Haki. And that was something that needed to be fixed. If Nami picked up bo staff this time he wouldn't mind teaching her. As his naginata use was almost similar, and he did have some experience with using long pipes.

The Nami's talk broke him out.

Her proposition was to infiltrate Buggy's base of operations together and split their treasure 60/40. Luffy just nodded his head, he seemed bored. He was also a bit excited to fight both Zoro and Kuina.

But Zoro needed a day or two fully recover from his hunger torture. So he would wait a bit. Fight them at their strongest, and show them his strength.

But if they pushed for a fight he wouldn't decline. He liked being overpowered.

He wasn't like your average shonen protagonist that's hungry for battle. No, he did enjoy it from time to time, but he enjoyed training more. And most of the battle he did enjoy were one-sided beatdowns of him beating the enemy.

However, he didn't like it when Garp gave him a one-sided beating. Call him a hypocrite but he didn't like losing.

Nami didn't tie him up with ropes for now. He briefly wondered why, but quickly dismissed it as Nami recognizing that he wasn't as stupid as he made people believe.

But while they walked towards the area that Buggy's crew was occupying, a small grin stretched across Luffy's face as he realized that Nami had adapted to this minor detail, and simply planned to 'betray' him when they got there.

Though she was trying to dubble cross the dubble cross.

"Hey, I'm going to tie you up loosely," Nami whispered. It seemed that he was wrong in his conclusion. "I know you can easily break out of them, but I want them to let their guards down."

Luffy was impressed. So she was mainly playing a dubble game… or was she trying to test him. Not that some ropes would be a hassle to him. Luffy nearly laughed at the thought of her naivete as they continued to walk.

Nami wasn't stupid, far from it. Her true problem was that she was blinded by her preconceptions and common sense. But she should fix that… this world was lacking in the common sense department.

A few pirates took notice of them as they walked into the plaza, and signaled their captain. Buggy showed up and looked at them with no small amount of hostility.

"That's the girl that stole our map" someone from the group said and the other guessed that the other person was her companion. "And aren't you the guy I shot?" The blue nose said some other stuff, but Luffy turned it down.

The straw hat boy also was a bit bewildered by how strong Buggy's aura was, compared to how weak he was. Was the blue nose lazy or something, he had some gold nugget potential there.

Those that had a strong aura, they had an easy time growing strong. Though as they grew stronger, their aura strengthen as well. It was a continuous cycle of sort. Or that's how his Garp had explained to him.

There were many strong marine that started of with a weak aura, but grew strong over time. It mainly depended on their ambition and the effort they were willing to put in it.

So it wasn't a very good estimate.

"What do you flashy bastards want? I hope you're here to return the map you stole!"

Nami took on a devious grin as her plan unfolded. In no more than a few seconds, Luffy's hands and torso were tied up with a rope that seemed to come out of nowhere. She really was good at this.

"That's right! I'm sick of working for this guy. I've come to return the map and join your crew. You can have my boss as a gift," she shouted.

Buggy looked thoughtful at this turn of events, and then started laughing. "I guess you're not as stupid as I originally thought! Good work for me."

Figures. Pirates soon surrounded Luffy, and he rolled his eyes.

"Hey, before this goes any further… I have a proposal for you clown guy." Luffy said.

That made Buggy frown. "What did you just call m…"

But he was cut off. "Join my pirate crew."

What Luffy needed strong people, and even though the clown was another Ussop to his party, he wasn't unwelcomed. Though convincing him would be tough.