Chapter 10 - Wanted!

Chapter 10



As it turned out, Katherine slept through the entire afternoon and night, and well into the next morning. When she woke up, the two Patricks, Usopp and Luffy were the only ones sleeping in the room. Katherine assumed that everyone was in the kitchen, as the normally are, so dragged herself over there.

She was correct. A very jumpy Sanji was cooking; Robin and Nami were eating at the table. Zoro was standing by a wall, drinking a beer, while the small white cat that is Jasmine's cat form walked around his legs, purring. Chopper, Phillip, and Steve were sitting on the ground, talking amongst themselves.

“HelloK-changoodmorningwhatwouldyoulikeforbreakfast?” Sanji asked in one breath, jumping around to see her.

“Umm… what?' Katherine blinked.

“He's been like that all morning.” Phillip said.

“Because of his lack of cigarettes.” Chopper added sadly.

“And I think the mess the boys left here drove him slightly insane.” Nami said.

“… I find it kind of funny.” Robin smiled.

“Katherine… what's Jasmine doing?” Zoro asked slowly, eyeing the purring kitten at his feet.

Katherine blinked, then grinned. She knew. But she wasn't about to tell Zoro. “She's in cat form, so she thinks like a cat. She just kinda purrs.” Katherine lied. This was slightly true: Jasmine was thinking more like a cat. But she still had her preferences of people. “Maybe your hair reminds her of grass.”

“Ha! Yeahhereallyisagrasshead!” Sanji laughed.

“Umm… what?” Katherine blinked again.

“Just ignore him.” Nami sighed.

“Uh… huh.” Zoro blinked, as the Jasmine cat climbed up his shirt and curled up on his head, purring.

At this time, the two Patricks came in, eyes half closed.

“Goodmorninghowareyoutwo?” Sanji chirped happily.

“I want meat.” Patrick F complained.

“I want beer.” Patrick D complained,

“Gee. I've seen this before.” Nami blinked.

“Ihaveyourmeat.” Sanji said, throwing a plate of sausages at Patrick F. “Butsincewhendoyoudrinkinthemorning?”

“I dunno, just give me beer!” Patrick D said, angry that he was being questioned.

Robin looked over at Zoro. “Zoro, I think he's learning from you.”

Zoro shrugged. “Apparently, he's my apprentice.”

“Exactly! And if Zoro has beer in the morning, so do I!” Patrick D said proudly.

“No.” Sanji (not as hyper as before) said with a frown. “Now sit down.”

“Okay.” Patrick D said, sitting obediently down at the table.



**



The afternoon came quickly, and Patrick D was still rather angry that Sanji wouldn't give him a beer. He wasn't sure where everyone had gone, but he and Zoro were the only ones on deck, doing their daily workout of lifting huge weights. Patrick normally worked very hard at this, but found himself slightly distracted today, by Zoro's three earrings jingling together. He had his left ear pierced, once, and found that three looked really cool.

“Hey Zoro?” he asked suddenly.

“Hm?” Zoro grunted.

“Can I ask you for a favor?” Patrick asked.

“Sure, I guess.” Zoro replied, putting down his weight. “What?”

Patrick put down his weight as well. “Can you pierce my ear?”

“What?”

“Please?”

“Well… I guess…” Zoro said slowly. He had pierced his own ears, after all. “But I need a needle or something. You'll have to get one from Nami.”

“Couldn't you just… use your sword?”

“WHAT?”

“Well, it's not too wide at the tip!” Patrick urged. “Just a little poke on my ear…”

“I… guess…” Zoro blinked, uncertain.

“YAY! Thank you!” Patrick D grinned hugely.

Zoro sighed. If it made the kid so happy… slowly, he picked up his sword.



“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”

Patrick's scream shot through the quiet ship like a bullet. Everyone ran up on deck, and stared at the scene in front of them.

Zoro had taken his shirt off, and was pressing it against Patrick's ear. The white shirt was turning more red by the second. Patrick had his hand pressed against his ear as well, as he screamed a mix of curses and some foreign tongue. Zoro had leaned Patrick over the rail a little bit, so the tiny bit of blood that escaped his shirt fell into the water.

“Oh my god!” blurted a wide-eyes Katherine. Jasmine's face suddenly turned red, seeing Zoro minus his shirt.

“ZORO! Did you actually hit him?” Nami accused.

“N-no!” Zoro begged franticly. “He asked me to pierce his ear, and-”

“With your SWORD?” Usopp shrieked.

“Idiot!” Sanji yelled.

“That's dangerous!” Robin frowned.

“Gaaaah he needs a doctor! Gaaaaah I'm the doctor! GAAAAAAAAH!” A frantic Chopper screamed. “Gaaaah come downstairs!” Chopper ordered, pushing Patrick down the stairs.

“I can't BELIEVE you idiots!” Nami said, shaking her head.

Luffy still looked at where Patrick D was moments ago. Slowly, his eyes widened. “Wait a second… Patrick's bleeding!” he cried.

“Um…. I'm gonna go… find a new shirt.” Zoro said, awkwardly walking away.



**



By the time everything was back to normal, it was almost sunset. After the bleeding stopped, Chopper found out that it was only a cut down Patrick's earlobe. He told Patrick he could stitch it back up, but Patrick didn't want that. Everything was calm on the ship, until Usopp started screaming from the crows nest.

“MARINES! A MARINE SHIP IS COMING!!!! EVERYONE GET UP HERE!!!!!!!!!!”

The Straw Hat pirates ran up on deck, and looked out over the rails. Sure enough, there was a ship coming towards them, with a large sail, with the title MARINE written on it. Though, the ship itself was barely bigger then the Going Merry. Usopp took out his binocular-goggles and looked through them.

“Hey! It's Smoker and Tashigi!” He exclaimed.

“HOORAY! Then it's safe.” Luffy grinned.

“Uh, no it's not. They're still after us.” Nami pointed out.

“TASHIGI! SHE'S COME TO SEE ME!!!” Patrick D cried out in joy.

As the small marine ship came close to the Going Merry, (really, like 3 meters away) the two figures standing on it became visible; a large man, with white hair (though he seemed young enough) and two cigars in his mouth, who the five young pirates assumed was Smoker. And Tashigi.

“Hello, Straw Hat.” Smoker said gruffly.

“Hiiii there!” Luffy said happily.

“TASHIGI~~~~~~~~~~! HELLO~~~~~~~~!” Patrick D said gleefully, leaning over the rail.

Tashigi's eyes widened. “Y-You're Patrick! What are you doing there? W-were you captured by them?”

Patrick opened his mouth to reply, but Zoro cut him off. “Yes. Yes, he was. What are you gonna do about it?” Tashigi closed her mouth tightly, glaring at Zoro.

“We just came to warn you, Straw Hat, we know you have a new member.” Smoker growled, throwing a piece of paper on the ship. Chopper picked it up, and passed it around.

It was a wanted poster. It had a picture of Katherine, grinning as she did when she should on all the bodies. It read; `Wanted: Katherine. Dead or Alive. 15,000,000 berries'.

“Oh no!” Nami stared.

“Alright!” Katherine cheered.

“That's the same as me…” Sanji frowned. Luffy just laughed.

“We don't just have one! We have six!” He grinned, pointing back at Katherine, Phillip, Patrick F, Patrick D, Steve, and the cat in Katherine's arms.

They stared back at each other for what seemed like a very long time, before Zoro and Sanji both stepped up and hit Luffy. “IDIOT!”

“Counting a cat and a cow as crew members?” Smoker asked, amused.

“And poor Patrick, held there against his will!” Tashigi cried.

“THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONCERN, TASHIGI~~~~~!”

Patrick D called.

“Nothing we can do about it now. Stupid tiny ship doesn't have any canons.” Smoker sighed. But now Tashigi had noticed Phillip.

“Wait… you're… You're the little boy who killed a man with a lamp post!” She cried, taking out another piece of paper and looking at it. Phillip made it float over into his hands. It was another wanted poster, but this time with his picture.

“How'd they get this picture?” Usopp frowned, pointing at it. The poster said that Phillip was worth 10,000,000 berries. The picture was of a grinning Phillip, and about half of Steve's head.

“Who CARES? He's WANTED!” Nami cried.

“Aww… why aren't I as high as Katherine?” Phillip complained.

“You only killed one person.” Luffy said, shrugging like it was no big deal. Smoker grinned.

“Well. It seems that the Straw Hat Pirates are worth more then we thought.” He said, turning to Tashigi. “Tell the crew on this sad excuse for a ship to get us out of here.”

“Y-yes sir!” Tashigi said, running off.

“Next time, you won't be this lucky, Straw Hat.” Smoker smirked, as his ship floated away.

“Bye-bye!” Luffy smiled, waving as the ship left.

“Oh my God. This is terrible.” Nami groaned, sitting down.

“It's not THAT bad…” Chopper tried to comfort her.

“I dun get it. What's so bad?” Patrick D blinked, fiddling with his cur earlobe.

“'What's so bad'? The marines are noticing us! And they know about you guys too, which means bounty hunters will want to come for Katherine and Philip's heads!” Nami snapped.

“Could be worse.” Zoro shrugged. “They think that Patrick was captured, and they don't know about Jasmine yet.” Jasmine purred loudly.

“And I don't think they really care about Patrick F.” Katherine laughed, making Patrick F frown.

“Why is everyone on this ship such a moron?” Nami sighed, dropping her head.

“Hm… I'm kind of hungry.” Sanji blinked. “I'm gonna go cook an after diner snack or something.” He said, walking down to the kitchen. Luffy smiled at Katherine.

“Whatever you did to Sanji, I like it!” He said, running down after Sanji with Patrick F close behind.



**



Later in the evening, when the tired pirates had all crawled into their hammocks (or the floor), Nami had an announcement.

“I'm pretty sure we're going to reach the Grand Line sometime in the night.” She said, and paused as the Straw Hat's (except Zoro, who was sleeping and snoring loudly) cheered.

“… Which mean's we'll have to take turns standing watch in the night.” Nami continued, and paused as the pirates groaned.

“Luffy and Patrick F have first watch. Then Zoro and Patrick D. Then Phillip and Chopper, then Sanji and Usopp.” She looked at Robin, Katherine, and Jasmine. “If you guys want to stand watch, you can. I just thought I'd ask first.”

“Katherine and I can go sometime…” Jasmine, back in her normal form, replied.

“And I'll take last watch alone.” Robin smiled.

“No, I'll go with you.” Nami said. “So then that's settled.”

“Say… why don't the guys get any say in this?” Patrick D asked, with a murmur of agreement from the other men.

“Because. Now Luffy, Patrick, get out there.” Nami snapped.

“Yes ma'am!” Luffy yelped, as he and Patrick F ran out of the room.

“Good. Good night, then.” Nami said, climbing into her hammock and instantly fell asleep.

“…it's weird. She looks so peaceful when she's sleeping.” Phillip observed. “Yet so evil when she's awake.”

“Nami-san isn't evil… she's just… smarter then us.” Sanji blinked.

“Uh….. Huh.” Usopp blinked as well. “I'm with Phillip.”

“Everyone be quiet. I'm sleepy.” Katherine groaned.

“And I have next watch, so shut it.” Patrick D grumbled. And everyone, knowing that they'd eventually be woken up in the middle of the night, fell asleep to get as much sleep as they could.

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