Besides the evening sessions with Zeff, tasting Sanji's dishes, and basking or reading books during Usopp's training, Luffy also, along with Usopp, enjoyed crafting various gadgets for the long-nosed boy. As could be inferred from the story involving Usopp's village and his confrontation with Kuro's crew, Usopp fought in a somewhat unusual manner. Instead of a gun — a slingshot, instead of brute force — cunning and brains. Naturally, Luffy wasn't about to bury such talent, so he eagerly supported Usopp in all his inventive endeavors. However, this did not stop Luffy from subtly guiding his long-nosed gunner in the right direction. Sneezing bullets, stinky pillows, potent ketchup — these were certainly very entertaining and allowed for a great deal of tormenting an opponent… but not killing them. That was the main problem.
Usopp was still an innocent guy who had never killed anyone. It wasn't that this was such a huge problem — the world around them was hardly kind, which had its impact — but it could still cause significant trouble at a certain point. That's why Luffy pushed the boy to create increasingly deadly gadgets. Small bombs, bombs exploding with a cloud of poisoned needles, bombs with deadly poisonous gas, and so on. Usopp gladly created all these devices — he enjoyed inventing various things — but he seriously doubted his ability to use them for their intended purpose... Meanwhile, Luffy had no doubts about it, as he had taken care of that in advance.
Usopp, the naïve boy, still didn't realize the kind of family he had joined. What was worse for him, Usopp wasn't Nami and didn't even remotely resemble her, so he wouldn't receive any leniency. The freshly minted "Pirate Slayer" had already become a "Pirate," and now, under Luffy's careful guidance, he was slowly but surely moving towards the title of "Slayer." Observers like Sanji and Zeff saw how day by day Usopp fell deeper into the rabbit hole, without even suspecting it. All that was needed was time... What Sanji and Zeff didn't suspect was that Usopp had already reached the bottom of the rabbit hole and had firmly entrenched himself there before meeting them. In fact, he himself was also unaware of this.
And then Nami, Zoro, Yosaku, and Johnny arrived.
The long-awaited meeting took place just before lunch, right when Usopp had just finished another stage of his daily training and was now resting in the cool of one of the "Baratie" cabins. At the same time, Sanji was experimenting with several dishes at once, hoping to achieve a richer taste so that at least one of his meat dishes would finally be to his "non-captain's" liking. By that, he meant that it would be perfect even in Luffy's eyes. So far, only Zeff's dishes had received such praise, which greatly annoyed Sanji. What annoyed him even more was that the dishes prepared according to old man Zeff's recipes were indeed tastier than his own. So, despite his eager anticipation of his Goddess's arrival, at the moment of her arrival, Sanji was missing in the kitchen. Consequently, the only person who saw the arrival of the "Pirate Slayers" was the very main "Slayer." And, accordingly, he was the only witness to their more than strange behavior.
Luffy was comfortably settled in his deck chair, in the shade of a colorful umbrella, so he didn't even make an attempt to get up and go meet the wandering part of his family. Where would they go? They'd come by themselves. And they did come. The first thing Zoro, Nami, Yosaku, and Johnny did was collapse into sleep. First, Nami rudely lay down next to the boy, resting her head on his chest — and also wrapping her arm and leg around him — and immediately fell into a peaceful slumber. Then Zoro sat under the umbrella, leaning his back against one of the umbrella's legs, and draped his head on his chest, falling asleep instantly just like Nami had. Yosaku and Johnny stretched out on the planks of the deck, on either side of Luffy's deck chair, and promptly passed out. All of this happened without a single word from anyone.
As mentioned, no one saw the arrival of the "Pirate Killers" besides Luffy, nor did anyone see their extremely strange behavior except for him, but most importantly, no one saw Luffy's own expression: he had never had such a stunned look on his face! Or at least, no one in the family had ever seen him with such an expression. And perhaps they never would. Because the moment passed, Luffy's eyes returned from his forehead to their natural place, along with the jaw that had fallen onto his chest. By the time Sanji arrived, Luffy looked as if the sprawled sleeping members of his family around him were the most ordinary sight in the world. However, for Sanji, it was enough to see his Goddess peacefully snoring on Luffy's chest to immediately fall to his knees in despair and forget about everything in the world.
Zoro, Nami, Johnny, and Yosaku shamelessly slept until evening — thanks to Luffy, who somehow managed not to "sleep on anything"— and when they woke up, they all pretended that nothing strange had happened. And that nothing continued to happen. The fact that all four literally did not leave Luffy's side was, of course, not seen as strange at all. To Usopp and Sanji, it seemed as if the guys had managed to miss their captain terribly despite only being apart for a month... As for Luffy himself... unknown... he didn't seem eager to share his thoughts, but he constantly cast glances.
However, all this took a bit of a backseat when, closer to the evening, Sanji threw a Feast — with a capital letter — for the entire family. As always, it took place on one of the deck's planks, and only within the family circle. Despite the fact that the restaurant had no visitors left, Zeff wasn't invited to their family table. Everyone genuinely respected the old man, and on another occasion would have happily invited him to their table, but "here and now" wasn't just any Feast. "Here and now" was to discuss the immediate future of the family — and not only the immediate — which meant outsiders had no place at the table, and Zeff, no matter how you looked at it, was an outsider.
The midnight conversation began with Yosaku and Johnny's account. The guys told Sanji, Luffy, and Usopp about how their previous month had gone, and especially about everything that had happened on Nami's island. The girl herself, settling under Luffy's left side — which had already become a habit even before their separation — preferred to stay silent. Zoro was silent too. However, when Johnny's and Yosaku's story came to an end, Luffy looked at the guys with suspicion, squinting his eyes.
"I understand everything about Arlong and the marines, but I still haven't heard the most important thing from you," he said.
"The most important thing?" the confused guys asked in unison.
From Johnny and Yosaku's perspective, they had already covered everything.
"Yes," Luffy nodded confidently. "You still haven't told me why Nami periodically tries to kill Zoro with her gaze."
The mentioned guy immediately pretended he had no idea what his captain was talking about.
"Hmm… " Johnny and Yosaku hesitated in unison, glancing nervously at Nami, who immediately gave them the same 'Death Glare' she had directed at Zoro a moment earlier, but now aimed at them instead. "Hmm…" the guys said again, immediately catching the 'hint' from the girl.
However, no matter how deadly Nami's glare was, the interested and extremely friendly expression on Luffy's face promised far worse trouble than the girl's displeasure, no matter how strong it was.
"Zoro… uh… slept with Nami's sister," Yosaku, almost heroically, took the blow.
Sanji choked on his cigarette, and Nami loudly hissed at the mentioned swordsman. Zoro, in turn, convincingly pretended to be completely focused on the contents of his wine bottle, so he didn't hear anything and didn't see anything.
"HE DID WHAT?!!" Sanji finally jumped to his feet, having literally swallowed his cigarette, and his burning envious gaze was directed straight at Zoro, who, despite the deafening scream, still stubbornly continued to act deaf and mute. It should be noted that this tactic was taken straight from Luffy's playbook.
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