Chapter Text
Chapter 11: Loguetown and Smoker
They docked at Loguetown, home of Gold Roger, The Town of Beginning and the End. For a place of such reputation, it was actually a pretty normal looking, humble town. Not that Lelouch thinks that is a bad thing, if anything, it seems oddly appropriate to him. It certainly seemed appropriate to Lelouch that snobby elites get a wake up call that important things don't just come from their world. This humble town feels like a snub to Social Darwinism.
The goals here were fairly simple. One of the most vital was Zoro needing to get 2 replacement swords so he can fight at his best. He was curious how much of a difference a blade in your mouth could possibly improve over a blade in each hand, but he supposed he will learn eventually. Of course Zoro is too stupid to avoid Nami's con game, and honestly he suspected Nami was greatly underestimating how much swords cost. But, whatever, it wasn't his problem to deal with. Sanji was stocking up on food, Usopp was looking for sniper supplies, and Nami and Lelouch were going to do clothing shopping. Luffy, however, had completely different priorities for visiting Loguetown. He wanted to see where the King of the Pirates died, and where the Great Pirate Era began. Lelouch didn't judge him for this, he imagined that he'd have similar admiration for Roger if he grew up in this world, he just had different priorities.
So Lelouch and Nami head off to shop after Nami distributed everyone's allowances. Nami went to get a bunch of different outfits. Having grown up in affluence, Lelouch had never really been low on ways to express himself through clothing. After his and Nunnally's banishment, he gained a new sense of appreciation for the power of money. After the Invasion, he gained a new appreciation for the powerlessness that came from a lack of money. From what he understood, Nami grew up in poverty, so he could understand the desire to indulge a bit. Nami finally had the freedom to express herself, to have autonomy and self-reliance. Granted he thought she was buying a bit much, but he knew that while Nami's greed was a flaw that she had some struggle controlling, she could ultimately be trusted. He had no fear that he was going to get turned in for a quick buck.
Lelouch bought some of his own sets of clothes to be fashionable. He was even lucky enough to find an outfit exactly like his favorite casual look back home: a red jacket, black shirt and grey pants. He found a black outfit with yellow accents that was reminiscent of his Ashford uniform. Heck, he was even able to recreate the purple suit that he used to wear under the cape of his Zero costume. That was honestly one of his favorites. He decided to change into his new casual outfit, and then left the store with his purchases. Nami would catch up when she was done haggling. He needed to see if he could find them a Log Pose. He had a sneaking suspicion that he would struggle to find one, but he needed to check.
As he had suspected, it was basically impossible to get a Log Pose, even on the Black Market. The Naval Commander, a Captain Smoker, was apparently a very on the ball commander. He routinely went through town and confiscated or purchased any available Log Pose. Apparently, he also left instructions that if anyone wanted one for legal and legitimate reasons, to come to the Naval base and pick it up there. Which meant that if they wanted to get a Log Pose before the Grand Line, they would have to risk either stealing it from the base or try to use one of their more anonymous members to bluff their way through tricking the Navy into giving them one. It was a cruel and ruthless, but effective strategy. Force pirates to have to engage with the Navy to get supplied properly or go into the Grand Line blind and hope they get broken or killed before they even get to the first island. Lelouch decided he would gather the crew up and then they would decide how best to proceed.
He decided to first gather Luffy. He'd already run into Nami and heard about the storm coming, so Lelouch came to the conclusion a smash and grab was their best option. Hopefully the storm would cover their escape. Unfortunately, when Lelouch found Luffy, he was in the execution grounds about to get executed by some clown. As in a literal clown, Zoro and Sanji were trying to save him. Lelouch went to join in the effort to save him as Luffy defiantly claimed he would be King of the Pirates, as some of what could only be described as circus pirates kept getting in the way. A pretty woman with a cowboy hat and large mace and wearing a long coat, bikini top and long pants but nothing on her feet for some reason blocked Lelouch's path and said, "Woah there Foxman, it's rude to interrupt an execution."
Before Lelouch could snap back, Luffy shouted, "Zoro, Sanji, Lelouch, sorry but I'm dead" and then he smiled. Just as the clown was about to chop Luffy's head off with a sword, the whole platform was struck by lightning and destroyed. Luffy being rubber of course got up like it was nothing and said with a laugh, "Hahaha, hey I'm alive I sure am lucky huh?"
Leluch just smirked and said, "I guess even God hates clowns huh? Look guys we gotta get out of here, Nami says there's a monsoon on the way."
"You boys aren't going anywhere until my business with Luffy is done," said the half dressed woman with what Lelouch felt was a lot of undo confidence.
"Ma'am if you don't want to get hurt I suggest you get out of our way," our "friendly" fox did not have the patience for this.
"Sorry, but I'm not letting my love get away. Luffy needs to take responsibility for stealing my heart. Besides Mr. Fox, everything you do to me will just slide off, but you're welcome to make yourself look ridiculous." This woman really needed to be taken down a peg.
"Nothing, huh?" Lelouch already intuit that what she was talking about must be some Devil Fruit power. He neither knew nor cared about what this woman's game was, so Lelouch decided to exploit the rain and blasted a charge of Electro. As expected, everyone in the town square got shocked, though luckily for them he kept the voltage relatively low. Thankfully, the civilians evacuated by this point. Unfortunately, while the woman was indeed shocked as he intended, so too were Sanji and Zoro.
"Lelouch you shitty fox, you zapped us too! And how dare you hurt a lady." An infuriated Sanji kicked Luffy in the head.
"Oops, sorry you guys, that was an accident, my bad." said Lelouch intentionally sounding too innocent.
"Bullshit, you did that on purpose!" Yelled Zoro.
Lelouch responded, "would I do that?" The resounding "Yes" was fun, but unfortunately, the clown pirates started recovering and got back up. They were about to attack when the clown stopped them.
"Standdown men, none of you are a match for this flashy fox! He's a Mink, a New World Pirate. He's way out of our league, minks are born fighters and with his Electro and this rain, not even Alvida can put up a real fight." Well, that was a surprise, an East Blue pirate actually knew what he was and how outmatched they were. And of all of them, it was this ridiculous clown?
The woman, Alvida, had recovered and asked, "And you know this, how, Buggy?"
"Years ago, I used to sail with two minks, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi, and they were some of the fiercest fighters I'd ever met in my life. On top of that, this is Devil Fox Lelouch! This man is worth 90 million Beri, we're a joke to him!" The clown, Buggy, responded, shocking the rest of his crew.
Lelouch decided to play into this because they needed to get out of here, "You're surprisingly well informed. Fortunately for all of you, my allies weren't hurt by your pathetic attempts at revenge and frankly, I have more important things to do than dishing out punishment for your nobodies’ ignorance. Stay out of our way, and you worms get to live." And with that, the Straw Hats left, and just in time too. The Navy arrived led by someone who could only be Captain Smoker. Smoker moved to capture the pirates and the fox saw that that running was their only real option to dealing with Smoker. Smoker was a Logia type and he could turn into smoke.
Damn, if only any of us could use Haki, maybe we could fight him. Now, Lelouch had to come up with a strategy to take on Smoker in case the navy captain caught up to them. He looked around and saw a home appliance shop and got an idea. "Guys keep running and I'll catch up," Lelouch ran in and grabbed two vacuum cleaners and left the money for them and ran out. Apparently, it was a good thing he dove into that store because it turned out that Smoker had given chase and had flown past Lelouch while he was in the shop and now had caught up to Luffy. Smoker of course beat Luffy and pinned him down. The fox snuck up on Smoker and after placing one on the ground kicked Smoker in the head, which Smoker dodged by turning into smoke. What he didn't know was that was exactly what Lelouch wanted. Grabbing the plug, Lelouch used Electro to power the vacuum and then sucked up Smoker's body before he could fully reform and solidify. Once Smoker's body was fully inside the cleaner, Lelouch buried the vacuum in a trashcan, shoving it under some full bags and after placing the metal lid back on and having Luffy bend the metal stuck, they turned the can on its side kicking it down the street. He then grabbed the spare and yelled at Luffy, "Come on we got to go Luffy! That vacuum won't hold him for long, we gotta set sail!" And then ran in the direction of the Merry.
Luffy followed his foxy crewmate and said as they ran, "thanks Lelouch, I had no idea how to fight that guy. That sure was smart, but why are we running? You beat Smokey already right?"
Lelouch responded, "First, remember what I told you before, Nami says there's a monsoon on the way, and since the Navy's on high alert we need to use it to escape. Second, no unfortunately, all I likely did was slow him down and piss him off. Vacuums aren't airtight Luffy, so it's only a matter of time before he escapes. Thankfully, once the high winds kick in, he won't be able to use his powers without blowing away."
"You're damn right you piss me off, Devil Fox! How dare you shove me in a vacuum like I'm some dust on your carpet, you pirate scum!" Roared an infuriated Smoker. He'd never been so humiliated in all his life!
"Sorry Smokey, but we're a bit too much for a mildly competent, mediocre Navy captain. Come after us in about a hundred years, maybe then you'll actually be at a level to catch us," and with that little bit of snark, Lelouch vacuumed the flying smoke-man again. This time he had Luffy wrap his arms around two lampposts and used his body like a slingshot to send the vacuum out of sight. They then finished their run to the docks and seeing the Merry was already sailing, Luffy used a Gum-Gum Rocket to get him and Lelouch on board.
"Where were you guys? And what the heck was Sanji talking about, there was a guy who could turn into smoke?" asked Nami.
"Smoker, a Navy captain, he's a Logia-type. He can dodge any damage you try to inflict on him by turning into smoke. We can't fight him without Haki unless we find a weakness to exploit because he can't be hurt unless you catch him off guard." Lelouch explained.
Luffy then exclaimed, "Lelouch got Smokey good! He beat him with a vacuum." The crew had a good laugh at the image of a supposedly terrifying Navy captain being shoved into a vacuum like a pile of dirt.
Then, a barrel was brought out and Sanji suggested they have a little cast off ceremony. Sanji put his foot on the barrel and said, "To find the All Blue."
Luffy was next, "To be King of the Pirates."
Then Zoro, "To be the world's greatest swordsman."
Followed by Nami, "To draw a map of the world!"
Finally, Usopp, "To be a brave warrior of the sea!"
It was a silly and simple ceremony. A show of solidarity that in normal Britannian society would have been seen as childish as well as the dreams professed. Milly would have gotten a kick out of it though. Lelouch however, decided that he will let himself join in the silliness, let himself join in the childish revelry that also gave them the daring to take the world by storm. As such Lelouch smirked and added his own foot to the barrel and said, "To defeat Kaido and free the Land of Wano!"
With a laugh and a fist in the air, "Let's set sail! Next stop the Grand Line!"
End of Chapter 11
A/N: Another short one today. I almost feel bad for Smoker, imagine guarding the gate to Grand Line in the East Blue for years and now, you fail to catch Straw Hat Luffy not because the World's Most Dangerous Man showed up Deus Ex Machina style to save his son, but because a fox sucked you into a vacuum cleaner, twice! Anyho, who's ready to see Vivi?
Next Chapter: Reverse Mountain and Laboon