Who is Hachi?

It's been a while since we left Thriller Bark now. We were peacefully sailing and fishing when all of a sudden, pillars of swirling water were emerging from the sea. Everyone literally had to fight the water as it tried to hit us. It bent over the ship and tried to crash into it like it had a mind of its own. I officially hate the weather on this sea. Eventually, one of the pillars bent beneath us and we were picked up by it. It was surprisingly peaceful as we rode on the bend of the current. Like a free ride. I looked toward the front of the ship, my eyes catching view of what was just after these crazy currents.

"I can see it!" Luffy shouted, "The Red Line!"

I ran up to the railing behind him, grinning widely. "We finally got here!" Nami sighed in relief.

"There was a nasty storm that day, too..." Sanji hummed.

I leaned toward Franky and raised a brow, "What's he talking about?"

"No idea," he responded.

A huge water pillar erupted right in front of the ship after that, and Nami instructed Sanji to get onto it. He did so, even if Franky was a bit skeptic. As soon as we got on the large bending current, we furled the sales and Coup de Burst-ed out of there. The ship touched back down to the sea, causing Usopp and Chopper to let out a breath of relief.

"We're here... We've finally made it here!" Luffy called out with a laugh. We all had our own reactions until Luffy began talking again, "Anyway, we're halfway there now! The Twin Capes, where we met Laboon, are connected to this wall on the other side of the world. I'm glad we've all made it here together!"

"Apparently, I crossed Reverse mountain from South Blue before I was old enough to remember, but I guess that was more than 30 years ago," Franky commented.

"I entered this sea five years ago, from West Blue," Robin followed up.

"I came through North blue according to my father," I added.

Luffy stood up on the figurehead of the Sunny and said, "Once we go around the second half of the world, we'll get to see this wall again, and when we do... I'll be the king of pirates!"

I left after being informed by Nami that Marine headquarters was nearby. Luffy, Robin, and Brook all went in the shark submarine to check out how to get to Fishman island since the log pose was pointing directly down now. I went into my workshop and struggled to pick up my newest creation. I placed it into my metal box that acted as a backpack, fitting it over my shoulders and almost falling to my knees. Holy shit. I may be the greatest friend ever. I shuffled over to the rope ladder that led to the crows nest, looking up at my destination with disdain. After about 15 minutes of me climbing up, sweat was exiting every pore of my body. I wish a regular backpack would have worked in delivering this so there wouldn't be even more weight on my back, but alas, the fabric would rip. Finally, I got to the hatch of the nest and threw it open with haste, climbing into the room with a huff.

Some clanking ensued, and I looked up to see that Zoro was staring at me in confusion. "If you're struggling to climb up here, you're pretty pathetic," he commented.

My eyebrow twitched in irritation. I didn't answer him, sitting up and setting the tall metal box of a backpack down. He turned to go back to working out, since that was clearly what he was doing before I came up here with all of the sweat that was on him. And the fact that he was shirtless. My eyes lingered on him a little longer than they should have, but I turned and popped open the box. "The reason I was struggling so much was because I had a heavy weight on my back," I cut through the silence with my voice.

"Yea? Why? Training?" he asked, still doing his crazy handstand pushups with huge weights balancing across his feet.

"Yes, training. But not my training, even though I should probably train anyway. I'll start that in a bit, but this is for your training," I hummed. That got him to stop. He stood back on his feet and he looked at me with curiosity, though it was faint. I grabbed the handle of the dense alloy I created, heaving it out of the metal box with a grunt, successfully holding it up for about two seconds before the object crashed back onto the ground with me still holding the handle of it up. "This is for you, you work out crazed man."

He walked over to me and took hold of the handle I was carrying. He didn't seem very impressed until he tried to pick it up. He did lift it off the floor, but his arm was physically shaking. It was the shape a sword with a blunt blade, made out of the densest metals I could find in order to make it the weight of hell itself. I'm pretty strong, I shape metals, I use brute force on them just like I do on other people while fighting, but goddamn, I could barely hold that thing with my arms. It was not built for fighting or cutting, but rather gaining upper body strength and control.

"Damn," he grunted to himself, trying to swing it over his head with both hands. When he could barely do so, he set down the block of metal hell and looked at me, giving me one of his rare genuine toothy smiles. My heart nearly stopped. "This is gonna be part of my main training equipment from now on. Thanks."

I fell to my knees and clutched at my heart, wheezing out, "Don't ever do that to me again." I recovered from that surprise attack before he had the chance to ask what I was talking about, standing to my feet like nothing happened, "Anyway, speaking of my training, I'll be up here to us weights I can actually manage sometimes."

He raised a brow but slowly nodded, "Fine by me as long as you don't disturb me." I turned to ascend back down the hatch, only to freeze as I heard him say, "Did you seriously believe I'd die from something like that?"

My eyes shifted back to him, seeing him leaning on the present I gave him. He was talking about Kuma, wasn't he? I'll admit, I mostly made this little gift due to the sacrifice he made. "You damn near looked like you were already going to die BEFORE pulling that stunt. I would have killed you in your afterlife, too, if you did die, though," I grunted.

His face wasn't really readable as he stared at me. He replied, "Like you could."

I walked right in front of him, and then punched him over the head. "You tryna show your vitality right now or something? I'll fight you if that's what you're looking for," I huffed, my face scrunching in irritation.

Surprisingly, he didn't get mad. I blinked in confusion when he grabbed the wrist of the hand that hit him, most likely to keep me from doing it again. "If you think you're gonna kill someone who's dead, it'd have to be Brook. When the Shichibukai gave me the alternative of withstanding Luffy's pain, death wasn't anywhere on my mind. So why was it on yours?" he questioned, his eyes staring into my own.

I suddenly was very aware of how physically close we were, and I lowered my eyes down to his hand that was gripping my wrist. "Maybe because I didn't want you to take the chance even if you lived? Is it bad for me to worry anyway?" I mumbled. I looked back up to him. He didn't seem to care that he was less than a foot away from me. Having to tilt his head down a bit to make eye contact with me. Am I the only one who's being weird about the closeness?

"Even if it looks like I've died, know that me and anyone else on this crew will always bounce back. Especially Luffy," he breathed out, his face softening a bit.

"Was that a rubber joke-"

"No."

I laughed and shook my head, getting an irritated scrunch of his nose in response. The tense air was gone. I spun on my heel to walk away but his grip on my wrist kept me from leaving. "What?" I asked with a light tone. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he was taking too long, so I grabbed the hand that he had on me, and tugged him, "Let's go down to the deck! There's been a bunch of noise down there." I was leaning backwards while I spoke, using him as an anchor.

He didn't say anything, but he walked forward at that. The thing is, I was using the resistance of his body to stay up. I fell backwards and he tried to tug me back. I pulled him down with me on instinct. We fell through the open hatch, letting go of each other from surprise, and I landed on my back. I was about to get up until Zoro crashed on top of me, pushing all the air out from my lungs. "G-get off me, you sweaty monster," I wheezed out, scrunching my nose.

He sat up and rolled his eyes, "You climbed up a ladder and started sweating buckets, who's a sweaty monster?"

"HEY! I had a reaso- PFT!" I slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle my laugh when Sanji literally flung the green head off me with a violent kick to his side.

"DON'T DIRTY (Y/N)-SWAN WITH YOURSELF, MARIMO BASTARD! AND HOW DARE YOU STAY ON TOP OF HER LIKE THAT?!" the blond yelled, grinding his foot down onto the swordsman's stomach.

Zoro threw the cook off of him and butted foreheads with him aggressively, shouting, "IT WASN'T LIKE THAT YOU DAMN PERVERT!"

Ah, right. He only sat up, he didn't get off of me. Kinda sus, if I do say so myself. I stood up while Nami punched them both in the head to shut them up. Turning around, I saw Luffy, who was cracking up, and... a mermaid?

"Oh! (Y/n), check her out!" he chirped, motioning towards the girl. Zoro came up behind me after that. "Zoro too! She's Camie, a mermaid. A real mermaid! She's awesome!"

She greeted us. "A mermaid?" Zoro thought aloud. I got a flashback to Kokoro. "First one I've seen," he stated.

"He erased it! He just erased the memory!" Chopper shrieked.

"We're just gonna make a little detour to save her takoyaki friend," our captain informed us.

Camie looked down and said, "I'm worried, though. Hatchin sounded so weak. I know they've done something awful to him."

A starfish thing walked up to her and tried to console her, "Well, he's pretty tough. It should be fine." It then turned to Luffy, "Anyway, you guys agreed to help pretty fast. Are you that confident in your skills? Just so you know, there's a lot of kidnapping gangs operating around here. The human trade is a booming business in the Sabaody Archipelago."

"They buy and sell humans?" Sanji asked after puffing out some smoke. "That's some nasty business."

"Mermaids are sold at particularly high costs, so the three Macro Pirates are constantly out to kidnap Camie. Hachi, the takoyaki shop owner, probably doesn't realize we were eaten by that sea monster, and thinks we were taken by the Macro Pirates, which would be why he went after them."

"That's probably right. Hatchin is very kind and upright. It's my fault," Camie sighed out.

Why is there a talking starfish...? And did he just say they were eaten by a sea monster before they got here? What the was happening out here while I was talking to Zoro? The green head had already moved to take a seat on the steps with some water.

"Hearing about octopus and 'Hachi' makes me think of that idiot fishman," Zoro grunted.

"If it's really him, I'm not saving him. Okay, I guess that's not true," Sanji said, glancing at Camie.

"Normally, Hachi would wipe the floor with them easily, but if the infamous Flying Fish Riders are involved..." the starfish trailed off. Franky questioned what that was, so he answered, "They're a kidnapping gang that's been throwing their weight around in this area lately. Everyone says once they set their sights on you, you're doomed. Their boss is a guy in an iron mask named Duval. No one knows what he looks like under that mask. I heard he's searching for someone, so he checks every ship that goes by here."

Luffy reassured the mermaid that we would get back this "Hachi" guym while Brook started playing a song to calm everyone down. The fish that were apparently guiding the ship scurried off soon after this due to being scared. The ship was attacked by flying fish riders right after that. Literally flying fish. Straight up soaring in the air. They left as soon as Zoro and Luffy deflected some bombs they sent down to us.

We entered the base when the ship reached it, with much struggle from Usopp. When we came in, we saw Hachi in a cage in order to lure us in. For some reason, he was covered in a black substance. Nami, Zoro, and Sanji all seemed to be suspicious of.. something.

"Oi! How's Arlong doing?!" Sanji called out to the caged male after the three of them conversed a bit.

"Oh? Arlong? Well, he and Chew and Kuroobi were all captured by the Navy! I was the only one to break out, and now I'm running a takoyaki ship like I always dreamed of doing!" he called back.

"Arlong?" Luffy hummed in confusion. His eyes then widened in surprise, "It's you, octopus?!"

"AHHH! CRAP!" Hachi shrieked. I have no idea what's happening, but I do know that this guy is kinda dumb. Both Luffy and Hachi.

"You're the takoyaki maker called Hatchin?!" our captain questioned.

Robin asked what this was talking about, and then explained that the guy was connected to Nami in the worst way. He was part of a fishman pirate group who took control of her village, extorting her and the village. Luffy was busy having an internal struggle at the front of the ship since he didn't want to rescue Hachi, but he also wanted takoyaki.

Zoro grumbled something, so Camie came up to him and innocently asked, "You know Hatchin? Were you friends with him before?"

The swordsman glared down at her with Hell's fire behind him as he growled, "We're not friends!"

She screeched, rightfully, and fell to the ground. Usopp called out that we should turn the ship around. Camie turned to Nami and questioned what was going on. The orange head replied, "I wasn't expecting your friend to be him."

The mermaid and her starfish jumped into the water after figuring out the crew was not gonna help. They were caught instantly by some guys who were waiting in the water. Hachi started slamming his head against the bars of his cage, trying to help her out. Nami then announced that we would be helping after all since she took some time to reevaluate his character. Luffy jumped into action, saving Camie and her starfish and landing on the boardwalk of the hideout beside Hachi.

"Guys! It's battle time!" the captain yelled over to us, raising his arms with a grin.

"Yea!" we shouted back. I activated my devil fruit and watched as a bunch of flying fish took off from the water. We defended the ship pretty easily, and after the fish dived back into the water, Zoro made his way to rescue Hachi. He cut the bars of the cage and then defended them when a flying fish tried to attack the mermaid and fishman.

When the fish resurfaced, Brook decided he was going to show off since it was his first battle as a Straw Hat. He used his violin to put some of the riders to sleep, and then cut them down. The skeleton ran across the water while dodging some fish, meanwhile Luffy decided he was going to try to ride a flying fish again after almost drowning the first time. He grabbed onto one, only to find that the rider was asleep. I facepalmed as they crashed into one of the buildings of the hideout.

One of the fish riders ordered a pervert formation or something, and we all went back to fighting off attacks. Soon after that, there was a bunch of crashing on the hideout, so we all turned to see that a giant bull plus a guy in a metal helmet showed up chasing Luffy.

He went on a little rant about how he was in this human trafficking business because he was forced to, and then he turned his attention to the ship. "The man I have wanted to kill so badly that I dreamed about it is right in front of me! I'm so grateful! There truly is a God! The man who showed up that day and plunged me into the depths of Hell... On this day, here and now, even if I go down as well, I'll kill you! The pirate, 'Black Foot' Sanji! I have longed to see you."

"Huh? He wants to kill me?" Sanji questioned beside me.

"Sanji, who's this guy?" Franky asked on the other side of the blond. "Does he have some kind of grudge against you?"

"Maybe it's from when you worked at the restaurant?" Nami tried to help out his memory. "Try and remember!"

"That was so long ago... all I ever did was piss people off..." Sanji mumbled, trying to count on his fingers how much people he'd angered.

"Just get shot, it's what you deserve," Usopp said, putting an arm around the cook's shoulders.

I laughed until the metal mask guy started talking again, "Don't play dumb, Black Foot! It was just recently!" he started shooting harpoons that were covered in poison. We kept having to dodge, but Sanji still had no idea who this guy was. Luffy jumped up out of nowhere and kicked the mask off of the guy's head.

When my eyes landed on the man's face, I fell to the floor and hit the ground with a fist, struggling to breath while the guy was trying to explain what happened to him due to Sanji's existence. Something about running from the Navy because people kept mistaking him for "Black Foot" Sanji.

The blond Straw Hat caught on fire from anger and yelled, "QUIT SCREWING AROUND!"

The guy looked exactly like the blond's wanted poster, and I couldn't get enough of it.

--- I was thinking of skipping this, but I couldn't since Duval literally protects the ship over the two year timeskip. Plus, Duval is funny. Have a nice day bbg.