47 Chapter 47

47

"That was awesome!" Pepper shouted.

"Can we do that again!?" Carrot pleaded.

"How did you do that!?" Onion demanded.

Luffy addressed them in order as he turned to each of them. "Yes, it was. Maybe later. I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi. I'm a rubber man."

"Rubber man…" Nami repeated helplessly, and her head sagged. Of all the ridiculous things in the world.

"Rubber?" a few voices repeated.

Now both Zoro and Kuina knew about devil fruits. And they sure knew that being Rubber wasn't considered anything special. Both of them heard about Whitebeard's quack quack fruit. With how much Luffy displayed his strength, they were expecting something similar.

(A/N: For those of you unfun people out there, I know I messed the name up. But it became a meme now, and I don't wanna ruin it. The name should be quake quake fruit, or gura gura no mi.)

That actually brought some respect for the rubber boy. That only meant Luffy's power was no short-cut fruit, but was result of training. Something both the swordsman could admire.

"Devil Fruit… so it's not a rumor after all. I've never seen him do that before!" she said surprise written on her face. "I assumed that you were just superhumans or something! The Devil Fruits are supposed to be a legend! Don't tell me you guys ate one too!"

"No, not me," Zoro said.

"Me neither," Kuina said.

Coby didn't say anything just shook his head.

"Oh, yeah, only Sparky ate one." Luffy said. "I actually have another fruit in the bag as well."

All eyes looked at the six-armed monkeys. Some wondered if the six arms were part of the devil fruit powers. But no one voiced their question.

Nami's eyes widened in realization. A devil fruit user… she didn't know a lot of it. But there were rumors that it made people invisible. True or not…the prospect for asking Luffy and Sparky for direct help against Arlong.

The more she stayed with Luffy the more he seemed to be appear like one of those aloof main characters from fantasy books she read when she was little. But Luffy was anything but aloof, he was acting that way. But underneath Luffy was more smarter then he let on.

That was also the reason why she was a bit more cautioned against him. What if all of this is an attack… to let all of thier guards down. But something in her told otherwise.

"Hey! What the hell are you guys doing here?" They turned to the familiar voice. They hadn't noticed Usopp up in the tree until now. He was on a branch level with an open window that a young girl was leaning out of.

Luffy grinned widely and pointed at Usopp. "We're here to recruit you!"

Usopp's eyes widened to epic proportions. Recruit him? Weren't they pirates? Excitement welled up inside him but we quickly composed himself. He pointed to himself confidently, chest inflating.

"Finally, someone recognizes my talent." He said with his arms crossed and a confident smirk on his face. "Tell you what. Let me be the captain and I'll join you,"

"No way!" Luffy shouted, still smiling. This caused Usopp to lose his balance and almost fall out of the tree. "You can be the sniper, though. Uh… why not be one of the officers of the crew. Sharpshooter of the straw hat pirate, Officer Ussop, has a nice ring to it."

This caught Usopp's attention and he almost forgot about being captain. "You bet it does! You won't find a better sniper in all of East Blue!"

They all looked at the bold statement with mixed reactions. All of them was wondering what kind of sniper used a slingshot. Except for Luffy who fondly smiled at his new crewmate. Or his future crewmate, Usopp cleverly neither confirmed or denied his joining his crew.

Luffy also found it amusing how most of Usopp's nature for blatant lies, his statement might actually be true. Well, when you lie so much as Usopp some were bound to be true. This time though, Luffy promised himself that he would make Usopp the amazing sniper he was ment to be.

He already had some plans for him.

The girl leaning out the window, who had been silent up until now, spoke up, "Are these friends of yours, Usopp?"

Usopp looked at her and waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, them? They're just fans of mine. They wanted to join my awesome pirate crew."

Nami felt embarrassed for the guy. Did he have no humility? Luffy had just invited him. Come to think of it, he hadn't really given an answer yet, but Luffy seemed complacent as if he had already said yes.

"Oh, is that a six-armed monkey…" but the girl was cut off..

"Hey, you delinquents! What do you think you're doing?" Everyone, minus Luffy turned to the new voice. It was a tall man with slick black hair and round glasses. He wore a formal suit and tie and walked with rigidity.

Usopp and Kaya stilled upon seeing him. He stopped in front of the tree and looked at everyone other than Kaya with distaste. "You are all trespassing on private property. I suggest you leave now."

"Klahadore! It's OK…we were just talking. You don't need to kick them out," Kaya said pleadingly. The caretaker looked at Kaya and shook his head.

"I cannot allow this, Miss Kaya. Your condition is bad enough without that ruffian's influence. I will not allow him to poison your mind with his ridiculous fabrications." Usopp was trying his best to take the not-so-subtle insults in stride, but everyone could tell he was having trouble. Kaya looked angry but held her tongue.

Nami was confused. Kaya did look pale, but not letting her have visitors wouldn't help at all. She herself felt most weak when she was alone for long periods of time. If anything, Usopp's visits should aid her mental well-being. What she needed was social interaction, not isolation from her peers. Didn't this Klahadore realize that he could very well be making her condition worse by insisting on her seclusion?

Coby wanted to stop the man himself, but didn't know how to refute those arguments. Kunia just stayed silent looking at Kaya she got enough of the picture of what was happening.

Zoro just forwned, something didn't feel right to him.