Vice Captain of One Piece

Chapter 223 The Strange Demon Sword 3
That night, the residence of the Straw Hat Pirates.After dinner, everyone chatted casually.Sanji was cleaning up in the kitchen, Chopper and Robin were sitting at the table reading a book, and Nami, who was also sitting there, was calculating today's expenses.Luffy was biting a bone, and Sauron was sitting by the wall near the door, with his three knives standing beside him, and a long brown wooden box in front of him.

After chewing the heel bone and swallowing it into his stomach, Lu Fei looked at Sauron: "Sauron, where is the knife?"

"I found a wooden box and put it in." Sauron glanced at the simple wooden box next to him, indicating that it contained the demon sword.

Nami put the pen aside and looked at the historian sitting opposite, "Speaking of which, Robin, have you found anything related to this knife?"

After closing the book, Robin shook his head and said lightly: "No, there is nothing. I have checked the entry and exit information of the sea train, Mr. Bingshan's database, the library in the city, and other places where there may be relevant clues. , but found nothing. I also asked people who might know, from the gangsters in the back streets to the officials who occasionally passed by the city, and I also had no clue. The analysis of the symbols above has not yet started, and the crystal sealed there looks similar to Ordinary crystals are no different."

"..." Hearing what Robin said, the others silently shed a drop of cold sweat and at the same time wondered in their hearts, 'How did you do it in such a short time...'

"By the way, and this," taking out a small reagent bottle and putting it on the table, Robin pointed to some small dark brown fragments in the transparent bottle, "This is what I took out from those symbols , no matter how you look at it, it looks like dried blood."

"Blood?", hearing this sensitive word, everyone looked at Robin.

"Judging from the color and degree of solidification, it should have been left four days ago. According to my guess, this should be the key to activate or maintain those symbols. However, I don't know much about it, and those who have never seen The symbols are also a bit more difficult to get at, and it may take a little longer to decipher them."

"Four days ago, a lot of disturbing things happened..." Nami rested her chin on her hand, her expression was a bit complicated, after all, she didn't really want to recall that chaotic moment.

Chopper, who didn't want to continue this topic, leaned over and took the reagent bottle, and said in a low voice, "Then I'll be in charge of checking the blood sample..."

After listening to their conversation, Sanji, who was leaning against the kitchen door, began to talk about what he saw on the coast today, "Speaking of which, Usopp seems to be planning to come back."

"Huh? Usopp is coming back??" Luffy, whose attention was distracted, looked at Sanji, hoping to get more news about him from him.

"Yes, he has been doing pre-rehearsals on the coast alone." Sanji said lightly while taking out a cigarette and lighting it.

"Really??" Hearing this, Luffy jumped up excitedly, and shouted happily: "Okay!! Let's go get him back now!!"

"Oh!!" Chopper, who was bouncing on the side, raised his hands in agreement.

"What a bunch of dishonest guys..." Although Nami said so, she still smiled.

"Hahaha, Usopp is coming back~~~~", Luffy happily ran towards the gate, followed by Chopper and Nami.

However, just as Luffy's hand touched the doorknob, Sauron sternly shouted from behind: "Wait for me!"

Hearing this, the three of them stopped and turned to look at Sauron standing by the opposite wall.But saw him say solemnly: "I will never allow any of you to take the initiative to pick him up."

Luffy asked in confusion, "Why?"

"Even if there is a misunderstanding, you are not allowed to beg him in a low voice, Luffy!" Sauron folded his hands solemnly and said solemnly, his attitude was firm and unwavering, "Before he comes here in person and bows his head to admit his mistake, I am I won't admit him!"

"Hey! Zoro!!" Chopper jumped up in protest.

Nami walked towards him disapprovingly, frowning with displeasure, "Wait, what are you talking about..."

"Shut up!", sternly snapping off Nami's unfinished words, Zoro's expression could only be stern.He walked steadily towards Luffy who was standing at the door, and took out the word "Hedao" as he walked, "When Luffy and Usopp first had a dispute, it didn't matter how deep their feelings were, and it didn't matter who was right or who was wrong. Since a man decides to solve the problem with a duel, it is the battle that decides the outcome."

Seeing Zoro standing in front of him, Luffy frowned and pursed his lips, trembling slightly.Recalling the fierce quarrel with Usopp at the beginning and the battle that developed later, recalling Usopp's unfeeling words without leaving any room, Luffy was silent.

"He was the one who brought up a duel with Luffy, but that guy lost and left without permission. Listen up, you guys." Zoro, who was standing next to Luffy, hit Luffy on the head with the hilt of his knife, and then used another The hand directly pulled a large piece of his elastic face, "Although this guy is an idiot, he is our captain. It is better not to be a partner who does not even listen to the captain's words at critical moments. If a team Even the captain has lost his prestige and will definitely collapse."

There was a moment of silence in the room. Sanji, who was still leaning against the kitchen door, breathed smoke silently, while Robin, who was sitting on the chair, looked at the two of them expressionlessly; after understanding Zoro's intentions, Nami and Chopper He also extinguished the thought of bringing Usopra back directly, and lowered his head in silence.

"Listen up! It doesn't matter how idiot you are or being teased by others!", pulling Luffy's face and pulling him in, Zoro gritted his teeth and stared at the disaffected Luffy and growled: "But if the status is The man above me does such a useless thing, then I will leave this group next time!!"

"Oh???" Nami and Chopper exclaimed in disbelief at the same time.Nami said anxiously with her arms akimbo: "Isn't there no room for redemption at all?"

Letting go of Luffy's hand and allowing him to stagger a few steps back, Zoro still frowned and said in a non-negotiable tone: "It's enough for that idiot to think about coming back now. But , If I don’t treat my sister well this time and try to muddle through, I will never allow it! At that time, I will have to leave Usopp on this island.”

"Wait a minute, Zoro." Nami, who wanted to persuade Zoro not to be so strict, persuaded: "That guy does have something bad. If you have anything to say, it won't be too late to say it after he comes back..."

Nami's words stopped abruptly, because Zoro had already pulled out the knife and thrust it into the floor, and behind him was the locked door that left the house.

"Is it such a simple thing to leave a team?" Sauron growled with irrepressible anger.

Seeing Zoro's appearance, Nami knew that there was no turning back, but she still didn't want to give up, "But..."

"Miss Nami." Sanji stopped Nami's words in a low voice, and after she looked at him, he said lightly: "I'm very confused, this guy is right this time."

"We will not be able to trust a man who willfully and recklessly do such things in the future," Zoro said in a deep voice, pulling out the knife and putting it back into the scabbard, "The problem is very simple. If Usopp tells us the first If one sentence is a deep apology, then forgive him. If you talk about it, then there will be no place for him on the ship! We are not playing pirates."

Lu Fei’s eyes were full of struggles, and his face was covered with fine sweat. After a while, he slowly closed his eyes and clenched his fists and said in a low voice: “Yes, we have completely parted ways. There are still a few days before the voyage, let's wait for him here..."

After speaking, Luffy walked slowly to the wall where Zoro was sitting, picked up the wooden box, and then went to lie down on the single bed where he was resting, "It's getting late, everyone, go to bed early."

"Um……"

The curtains were drawn, the lights were turned off, and the familiar cough sound outside the window was ignored by the preoccupied people.

………………

Since then, except for Nami and Robin who occasionally go out to buy furniture for the new ship, Chopper who buys medicine and medical equipment, and Sanji who buys food, Luffy and Zoro have never been out of the residence, and everyone else is doing their best. Minimize the time spent shopping and stay in the house and wait. (All the things bought back were moved to the new ship by the Franky family, except for frozen food.)
On the first day, the second day, and the third day, no one waited.In the evening of the third day, the four of Sanji and the others hadn't come back. There were only Luffy, who was looking at the knife with the knife, and Zoro, who was dozing off.

Luffy, who was lying on the table, stretched out his right hand and shook the knife in front of him, his eyes followed it.Suddenly, he stopped this movement, tapped his head with his left hand strangely, and then said as if he couldn't figure it out: "Speaking of Sauron, do you still remember what the owner of this knife looks like?"

"Huh? You won't forget the appearance of that ice sculpture so quickly, right? Isn't it just like..." Sauron, who was awakened, stopped abruptly, and then frowned slightly, trying to recall it from his mind. Looking at the ice sculpture I had only seen a few days ago, I found that I couldn't remember anything except the blurred outline.

"Zoro?" Luffy looked at him in a strange way thinking hard, and after a while, he looked at the cold white knife he was holding, "I don't know how I can't think of her now. Even the strange feeling when I saw this knife has become blurred..."

"I also feel like I can't remember it. Theoretically, it is impossible to forget so quickly in such a short time..." Zoro, who was not sleepy, also focused his eyes on the knife, "Or this knife Has it really been affecting us all this time?"

"No, probably not." Putting the knife on the table, Luffy continued to lie there and stare at it, "Because I clearly felt that it was very sad, and even I felt something was wrong... "

"If it's a very powerful sword, it can indeed communicate with a swordsman. It was similar when I got Guiche. But, Luffy, you are not a swordsman, how do you know what it wants to convey?"

"Huh?" After looking up at Zoro with a confused face, Luffy shook his head resolutely after thinking hard for a while, "I don't know, I heard it anyway."

"..." Zoro didn't want to say anything more about Luffy's animal intuition. He scratched his head and thought for a while and said, "I remember that day Robin seemed to draw a portrait in order to find clues. You can ask her when she comes back. one time."

"Really? That's great. I promised to help it find its owner, but it would be troublesome if I forgot its appearance..."

"However, there is no news so far. I only hope that we can find her in the next voyage."

"I will definitely find it~~~", Luffy suddenly burst into a confident smile, "I have a feeling, I will meet her soon!"

"Where did your inexplicable self-confidence come from..." Sauron looked at the bright smiling face and silently shed a drop of cold sweat.Then he looked at Lu Fei's hand that was still holding the handle of the knife, his eyes were slightly serious, "Lu Fei, don't you feel uncomfortable holding this knife all the time?"

"No, there's nothing. And it's cool to sleep with it in this weather~~~", Luffy put the demon sword back into the wooden box with a smile, then hugged it and rubbed it happily.

'Strange, obviously even I need to be more vigilant in order not to be disturbed by the Demon Sword.But how did Luffy, who is not a swordsman, do it?Could it be that as long as he is strong, he can suppress that knife? ’, Sauron was puzzled, and the blurred memory made him a little confused.And Luffy over there has fallen asleep on the table with the wooden box in his arms.

And when everyone came back to ask about it, like Luffy and Sauron, they couldn't recall what the ice sculpture looked like four days ago.However, Robin did draw a sketch casually at that time, but she, who has always been cautious and memorized, forgot where she put that piece of paper. .Even if I searched all over the room, I couldn't find the blank sheet of paper.

After finding no clues, Sanji asked suspiciously: "Strange, why does it always feel like all the information related to that ice sculpture has been erased?"

"It's true, it's impossible for all of us to lose our memory at the same time." Nami walked around with her arms crossed, and then suddenly thought of a possibility, she suddenly stopped and said loudly: "I see! Absolutely so!"

"What?", suddenly attracted by Nami's words, and everyone else looked at her with interest.

"Cough cough~", Nami coughed a few times on purpose, and Nami said with reason: "Think about it, this knife has very evil abilities, so it can definitely do something to our memory or mind, so that we We felt that we must help it find its owner. However, maybe because of the big fuss a few days ago, the power of this knife was almost exhausted, and there was no way to interfere with us. So we also forgot about the phantom, which is very Normal~~"

"As expected of Ms. Nami!!", Sanji, who was always the first to cheer, praised loudly with pink bubbles, "You are so smart~~~"

"Oh, is that really the case?" The naive Chopper believed it unconditionally.

"There is a reason, but it's a bit weird..." Robin somewhat agreed, but not completely.

"You're overthinking, Robin. It's not that complicated~~" Nami smiled and waved her hand indifferently, then pointed at the wooden box that Luffy was holding, "The solution is also very simple, That is to throw that knife back to the fountain~~"

"..." Hearing this, Luffy just silently tightened his hand, then shook his head slowly and firmly.

Zoro also disapproved of Nami's words, and said lightly: "The knife will stay here. It has been very good after staying with Luffy, so don't worry about any accidents."

Nami glanced at Luffy who was not letting go, sighed and said helplessly: "Then it's up to you, but if that knife goes crazy, throw it away immediately!"

"There won't be such a chance." After speaking in a low voice, Luffy pressed his face against the wooden box, closed his eyes and felt the coldness passing through the wooden board.

——Even if I don’t remember anything, even if the shackles of my soul are cut off, as long as you give me the slightest clue, I will definitely think of you by any means, and then I will find you in the vast sea of ​​people and let you return to me around...

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(End of this chapter)