Out for Karma: One Piece

Chapter 34: To beard or not to beard?

It’s been a couple of days since the crew had left Alabast, and the morale was at an all time low.

“What’s wrong with you?” asked zoro

“““““We’re lonely.””””

“I get it, I miss Vivi too! That’s no reason to behave like that! Look at Rick, he’s not moping around!”

They all looked at their newest member.

Still in his wheelchair his eyes had a vacant look.

“What are you talking about Zoro? Rick is in a state of shock!” said Chopper.

“What?!” Zoro was dumbfounded, it’s been two days!

“Well, no surprise here. Vivi basically told him that she’s gonna be his wife.” said Nami with a smirk.

“““““WHAT?!””””” The guys had their jaw on the floor and their eyes out of their orbit.

“Nami-swan, what are you talking about?” said Sanji with quivering lips. 

“Well Rick said he would only kneel to his wife, and Vivi’s last words to us, were and I quote: “And one day, I’ll make you kneel before me!””

“But didn’t she speak to a marine?” said Ussop

“Yeah a special marine she said.” Luffy added

“One who named and created the Vivid Dream for her.” ended Sanji

“That was Rick, he did that when he was in Alabasta 10 years ago.”

“Are you serious?” asked Sanji bewildered

“Vivi told me herself.” Nami was enjoying Sanji’s reaction.

Sanji grabbed Rick by the collar and was shaking him. He was so angry you couldn’t understand what he was mumbling, while Rick was still in shock.

That was not surprising though as Rick has been purposefully gaining affections points with Vivi since way back. It was obvious she would be the first member of his harem.

(Author’s note: She’s still 16. And nothing is sure yet.)

No one would believe that Author.

(Author’s note: I’m telling you: nothing is set in stone.)

Sure, sure...As if a Vivi’s lover writer would not put her in her harem.

(Author’s note: I’m not a…)

The narrator (aka me) interrupted the author because at that moment, someone unexpectedly came out of the ship with a yawn.

(Author’s note: Hey! Don’t you dare …)

Everyone froze.

“Seems like we finally left the island, well done.” said the unknown 8th passenger.

(Author’s note: Are you really comparing her with the xenomorph from Alien?)

The crew came out of it and each one had his own reaction.

“Here to get revenge? No problem I’ll be your adversary.” said Zoro hand on the hilt of one of his swords.

“Of all the people, why are YOU here?” Nami was in panic.

“BEAUTIFUL!!!” Sanji was ecstatic. Another beauty was on the ship.

Ussop had completely lost it

“ ENEMY ATTACK! ENEMY ATTACK! “ he sounded like a broken record.

Chopper tried to hide behind the mast poorly asking “ who’s she?”

“Ah! It’s you! So you’re alive?” simply said Luffy

“Welcome on board Miss All-Sundays!” stated Rick who came out of his state of shock from Vivi’s confession.

Zoro had taken out one of his swords and Nami her clima-tact; it was the weapon Ussop had made for her in Alabasta at her demand.

They were ready to fight.

But before they could do anything a hand appeared on their waist slapping their weapons away.

“Please don’t point those things at me, it's dangerous.”

“When did you get on the Merry?!” asked Nami

“Probably when we were staying at the palace, the ship was unguarded after all.” said Rick

Miss All-Sundays opened a compartiment below the stairs of the Merry and took out a folding chair.

“Monkey D. Luffy, you haven’t forgotten what you did to me, did you now?”

Sanji was angry and like he did to Rick, grabbed his captain by the collar and shook him.

“Luffy what did you do to such a fine lady?”

“She’s lying! I never did anything to her!”

“Oh but you did! And I want you to take responsibility for it!”

“You make no sense. What do you want me to do anyway?”

“It’s simple, I want to join your Crew.”

““““““WHAT?!””””””

Rick laughed.

“It’s seems like it would be fun”

~~~~~~

Let’s rewind the time a bit, to just after Crocodile’s defeat.

(Author’s note: You know you can just say *flashback*)

The temple where the Poneglyph stood was collapsing.

(Author’s note: So you’re ignoring me now…)

Giants rock, that once were part of the ceiling, were falling down on Cobra, Miss All-Sundays and Luffy.

“Why did you lie to Crocodile about what is written onto the Poneglyph?” aske Cobra to Robin.

A Poneglyph is a mysterious stele with history written on it in an ancient language. Scattered across the world it is said that they contain many secrets, including the story of the void century, a century that no books have any records off.

The marine had forbidden the study of Poneglyph and of the ancient language. They could have just destroyed the stele, but to this day and with all their means they couldn’t even put a dent on those giant stones.

“Oh, you knew that it gave the location of the ancient weapon Pluton?” said Miss All-Sundays.”

“Of course, the story of this country is not carved onto that stone. If that was the case, records of it would be in the royal library. So I guess it only contains the ancient weapon location. I’m asking again, why did you lie to Crocodile.” asked Cobra.

“I couldn’t care less about the ancient weapon.”

“Why did you come here then? Why join Crocodile?”

“I… had hoped that this Poneglyph would be the Rios Poneglyph. Out of all those stones it is the one that contains the true History. I’ve been searching for 20 years. This one was my last hope and turned out he wasn’t what I was looking for. I’m fine with dying here, I’m… just too tired, to go on. All I wanted to know was history but my dream had the world itself as an enemy.”

“The world… Wait, you’re talking about the untold history from 900 years ago?!”

He wanted to ask more questions but he felt himself being picked up. Soon Miss All-Sundays was picked up as well.

“Alright, let’s head up” said Luffy carrying both of them.

“Wait! I’ve no purpose left in life! Just leave me here.” she yelled.

Luffy glanced at her and just said:

” Why the hell should I listen to you?”

He started walking towards the exit. 

On the way, the boulders stopped falling in mid-air.

From the front Luffy heard Rick’s voice.

“Hurry!”

~~~~~~

“You forced me to live when I didn’t want to. I have no place to go nor return to, so let me stay on this ship.” said Miss All-Sundays after retelling what Luffy did to her.

“That sucks! Guess there is no other choice then, you can stay. Though it was Rick that got you out and saved your life. He should be the one to take responsibility.”

““““LUFFY!!!”””

“That’s not nice to throw a friend under the ship!” exclaimed Rick.

“Don’t worry guys, she’s not a bad guy” said the strawhats captain.

Miss All-Sundays turned to Rick

“Is right, you should take responsibility too.”

He was stunned.

‘Did I get owned? That’s not how it was supposed to happen!’

“I’ll… do my best” he answered sheepishly.

Ussop brought out another chair and a table and started interrogating her.

Rick joined him.

“I’m the vice-captain, it’s my duty!”

“What is your real name?” was Ussop’s first question.

“Nico Robin”.

“Tell us about yourself, please.” asked Rick.

“I became an archeologist when I was 8.”

“Archeologist?” was Ussop’s second question.

“Sort of my family trade!” answered Robin.

“That’s amazing!” said Rick with stars in his eyes.

‘Hehehe. Forget about dogs, acting skills level 5 is a man's best friend! You'll soon be mine Robin. ALL MINE!’

Robin saw the twinkles in his eyes.

“Interested in history?” she asked him.

“YES! I.. I mean yes, I am.”

“Maybe we could talk about it.”

“I’d really like that.”

Ussop was watching the two interacting with squinted eyes.

‘What’s going on, Rick is so assertive and composed normally.’

He coughed.

*ahem*

“Please continue.”

“Oh, sorry. For twenty years I’ve had to live hiding from the marines. Since a child can’t sail alone, I had to enter many villains organizations. Thanks to that I learned to move behind the scenes quite efficiently.”

“You sound pretty confident, what’s your speciality?” asked Ussop

Robin tilted her head on the side and with the brightest smile Rick has ever seen said:

“Assassination <3.”

“Luffy! After careful investigation, my conclusions are that she’s way too dangerous!” Yelled Ussop in fright

“Robin can you please do a demonstration?” Asked Rick

“Sure!”

She turned towards Luffy and Chopper sitting on the deck. An arm sprouted before them and started moving to the left, the hand waving as an invitation to do the same. They leaned in the same direction and Luffy’s head was grabbed by a hand that Robin made behind him.

She then sprouted more hands and started to tickle them both.

She didn’t miss the look of admiration Rick had towards her.

“Is it good enough?”

“Yes it is.” smiled Rick.

Nami’s voice was heard from the upper deck.

“You guys are pathetic, a few parlor tricks and she gets to stay?’

She looked at Robin

“You were the vice-president of a secret criminal organization! A ârtner to Crocodile. I’ll keep an eye on you at the first sight of something suspicious from you, I'm kicking you out!”

“Will giving you those jewels, taken from Crocodile, be suspicious?”said Robin.

At the word “jewel” Nami was already glued to Robin, and welcomed her to the crew.

Right then Sanji came out from the kitchen, coffee in his hands, with some weird dance move and served Robin.

“THAT, was to be expected from that idiot.” said Zoro

“It seems only the three of us are left to monitor her.” said Ussop to Zoro and Rick.

“Hey! Ussop look!”

Ussop turned around to see Luffy with two arms sticking outside his straw hat.

“Chopper” said Luffy.

 Ussop started laughing so hard he was rolling on the floor.

Zoro was silently pissed.

Rick spoke to him.

“Give her a chance, if she fails, you and I will take her out.”

“Fine.” answered Zoro

“Besides, aren’t you the first one Luffy recruited?”

“I am, so?”

“Well, can you say that he’s a bad judge of character after recruiting everyone?”

Zoro pondered what Rick just said for a moment. Sanji aside, no Luffy didn’t make any mistakes.

“No, I definitely can’t.” Zoro said, shooking his head.

“Then that settles it. Despite not being the brightest tool in the shed, let’s trust in our captain.” smiled Rick.

He continued:

“Up for some training?”

“Always!”

“I’ll ask the others.”

Rick asked Luffy and Sanji and even Ussop if they’d be interested. The only one reluctant was Ussop.

“Ussop, all great warriors of the seas started weak and became strong because they trained hard!” were the words he used to bait Ussop.

They worked.

“Rick, you’re still healing, so no more than half an hour” said Chopper

“Okay!” smiled Rick.

While the four guys were training, Nami was talking with Robin, Rick watched the training session and Chopper watched his condition.

A seagull delivered the new wanted posters.

Everyone stopped doing what they were doing and looked at the new bounties hoping, or not, to be among them!

“I’m worth 100 millions now!” exclaimed Luffy, happy with his bounty.

“How can a stupid marimo like you have a bounty and not me!” said Sanji angered .

“Because I’m stronger” said Zoro with a smug face

“Not bad Zoro, but still only makes you number four in the crew.” Said Rick with a smirk.

“What? I’m worth 60 millions! No one here except Luffy is higher than me!” retorted Zoro.

Rick exchanged a complicit look with Robin, they both smiled at each other.

Robin was the first one to spoke:

“I've been worth 79 billions since I was 8.”

Rick followed suit:

“I’ve been worth the same since I was 18.”

Zoro was dumbfounded and Sanji was just laughing at him.

“Well at least you have a bounty Zoro, keep training hard. Who knows, maybe one day you’ll rise to number three” said Rick, barely containing his laughter.

Those words made both Sanji and Zoro mad!

““Rick increase the gravity!”” they ordered him.

“Okay, don’t come crying if it’s too hard ~~~”

 They went back to training with a new determination.

“Gravity?” asked Robin, curious.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Rick can increase gravity a lot, or negate it making things or people float.” said Nami.

At that moment Robin and her chair started to float in the air before gently falling back on the floor.

“That’s an interesting power.” smiled Robin. Apparently she quite liked this little display.

Rick kept reading the bounties when he froze.

Chopper thought something was wrong.

“Rick do you feel unwell? Did you use your power too much?”

What made him freeze was his own wanted poster!

The picture had been updated, and showed him with a big thick beard and very long hair. He really let himself go.

He ignored him and turned to Nami and Robin.

“I would like the opinion of two women.”

Both ladies were taken aback a bit, Rick was suddenly so serious after taking a look at the poster he was holding.

“Should I shave my beard and cut my hair?” he said showing them his wanted poster.

They were both dumbfounded.

Nami gave him a round of love punch yelling.

“That’s for worrying me over you stupid beard! You looked like the end of the world was coming, you idiot!”

“I’m sorry! But that’s a serious matter!” he was pleading with puppy eyes.

Nami was ready to hit him a second time, but couldn’t. Not when he looked at her like that.

She could just sigh.

She looked at Robin who nodded slightly.

““Yes””.

Rick looked sad.

‘I guess I’m not going to have a badass beard in this world… Well at least this gives me an opportunity.’

He asked Robin:

“Robin could you help me shave and do my hair please?”

“Me?” she was surprised. Why was he asking her?

“Well yeah, you’re the only one who can do it.”

He lifted his arms and it was shaking a bit.

“Can’t do it myself, the four idiots back there don't even know what shaving is, Chopper too, and I’m broke, so I can’t ask Nami.”

“Hey! I’m not that money hungry.”

Chopper and Rick looked at her as if she had two heads but didn’t dare say anything about it.

“So you’ll help me then?”

“No.”

Rick turned to Robin with a pleading look.

‘How can this man be one moment wise and composed and the next behave like a child?’ she thought.

He kept looking at her.

‘Let’s tease him a bit.’

“You’re not worried I might do something?

“Should I?” he said raising and lowering his brows in succession. 

He was taunting her.

‘He can change his facial expression so fast. What an interesting man’

“Fufufu... fine, let’s do this.” she smiled

Robin completely shaved his beard, and cut his hair short, no marine style, just a bit longer. That was fine with Rick though.

Once done he turned to Robin, Nami and Chopper.

“So, how do I look?” he asked.

“I did a nice job, If I can say so myself”

“You did Robin. He doesn’t look like a beggar now.” said Nami.

To Rick she added

“Quite handsome for a thirty something man.”

“What are you talking about? I’m 28.” He answered with a puzzled face.

“That’s not what your poster says!” she said showing his bounty.

“Oh that? That’s because you can’t enter the marine if you’re not at least ten, so I lied about my age.”

“Wait, that means you enter the marine at… 6 ?” Nami was dumbfounded. Robin and chopper were surprised too.

Rick nodded.

“I was taller than kids my age and had bigger build too.”

“Unbelievable,” Nami said.

“It’s true though. I did put my correct age and date of birth on the marine’s contract, but I got caught later. Since it would have brought trouble, my superior falsified the document when they found out.”

“Why would anyone want to enter the marines at such an age?” she asked.

“Well, I was an orphan, no memories except my name and age and I was starving, didn’t have much of a choice, remember?”

Nami and Chopper couldn’t understand but Robin did.

She was only 8 when she found herself alone in the world with a bounty on her head. She had to do everything she could do to survive.

Now she understood how Rick could display different moods so fast.

‘He had to learn to survive too, in his own way.’

She felt a bit of empathy for him.

The atmosphere was a bit tense after Rick’s declaration so he tried to change it.

“Well, at least I’m quite handsome, so I got that going for me,” he said, winking at Nami who blushed.

“Now I just have to find a good wife.”

Robin laughed.

Rick gasped loudly, put a hand on his chest feigning being hurt.

“What? You don’t think I can? I’ll show you! Heck, I’ll make you my wife!”

Robin kept laughing at his absurdity.

“Keep dreaming” she said.

“Challenge accepted!” he declared

Robin rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“I’m not sure Vivi would agree with that.” said Nami with a sadistic smile.

Rick’s face paled so much he was almost transparent.

“What about the princess?” asked Robin, curious.

“No.. nothing, there is nothing!” said Rick in panic.

Nami wasn’t done with him yet.

“You see, Robin, Vivi and Rick…”

Rick tried to wheel himself to Nami to shut her up when something crashed on the table.

“What the …”

Soon many things crashed on the deck.

Everyone looked at the sky and saw a gigantic galleon falling down.