Little by little the Going Merry was getting closer to Alabasta, where Vivi and Karoo were at the bow looking straight towards her island, a bit worried. Nami walked over to see how they were doing.
"Finally. I would tell you not to be nervous, but I think that would be impossible. Do you have a plan to stop the rebellion?" Nami asked her.
"Yes, but it's also not guaranteed that I'll stop it like this." Vivi said with her gaze fixed on Alabasta.
"I'm so hungry." Luffy said while chewing his sandal.
"It's so hot..." The poor reindeer said sweating in the shade.
'Please don't make a hasty decision' Vivi pleaded internally.
The crew continued sailing until they were away from Nanohana where they docked.
"Alright, before we get off we have to make sure we act cautiously and don't cause any uproar. We don't want to attract the attention of..."
Before Nami could finish speaking Luffy got off in a flash and ran off.
"A RESTAURANT!!!" Luffy yelled in tears while heading towards Alabasta.
"WAIT!!" Nami yelled at him angrily, but he was already out of sight.
"Did you seriously think you were going to stop him with that?" Oliver asked her.
"That Luffy..." Nami said angry at his behavior.
"What do we do? Nanohana is a very big city it will be very hard to find Luffy-san here" Vivi asked, worried that something might happen to him.
"Don't worry about it Vivi-chan. We just have to look for the noisiest place in the city and he will be there" Sanji told her.
"Hahaha, you are right about that" Usopp laughed.
"Damn it! Luffy needs to remember that he has a bounty on his head. There could be bounty hunters out there!!" Nami said irritated.
"Don't worry about him. Let's eat and then we'll think about what to do" Zoro told her.
"And find a place with shade. It's very hot" Elegg said sweating.
"It's Luffy anyway, I highly doubt there is anyone in this city who can beat him" Oliver said until he remembered Smoker. 'Ace will be there, I don't think there will be a problem'
"They are all the same..." Nami said irritated turning around with her hands on her hips.
"Karoo and I can't go with you." Vivi told Nami and Usopp who looked at her.
"What's wrong? Does your stomach hurt?" Usopp asked her.
"She's the Princess of Alabasta, just by seeing her they will know who she is" Oliver told him.
"That's right, I can't enter any city without stopping the rebellion first" Vivi said.
"That is true." Zoro said
"Don't worry. I will go buy for you too, Vivi-chan." Sanji said with a smile.
"I will go with you." Oliver told him. 'That way I can buy supplies and see if I find anything interesting in the city'
"Wait! Mr. 3's ship!" Vivi said surprised.
"You mean that idiot is still alive?!" Usopp asked her.
"That is his ship, there is no doubt. It's a ship that can only work with the powers of the Doru Doru no mi" Vivi told him.
"So he must be in the kingdom" Sanji said.
"He's pretty tough to have withstood a giant's punch" Oliver said.
"You better go buy the things then, we will stay here waiting for you" Nami told Oliver and Sanji.
"Of course I will, Nami-swan!" Sanji yelled spinning around her.
"Let's go, perverted cook" Oliver told him grabbing him by his shirt and dragging him.
Both went towards Nanohana where the first thing they looked for was a clothing store.
"That outfit would look good on Nami-san!" Sanji said checking every piece of clothing.
"Hey, don't exaggerate. Remember we don't have much time" Oliver told him, but Sanji was in his own world.
"This outfit would look much better on Vivi-chan...!"
Oliver grabbed him by his arm to pull him closer to him.
"Shut up, remember we can't be careless about what we say" Oliver warned him while looking around. "We don't know if there are bounty hunters hidden among normal people"
"I know" Sanji told him being a little more serious until he saw dancer outfits so he ran over. "I want two!"
"I don't know why I bother" Oliver said seeing him without a hint of concern.
Sanji bought Nami, Vivi, and Elegg's clothes while Oliver made sure to buy clothes for the rest, which made him question how he had brought clothes for the rest without his intervention.
They went to buy what they needed to be able to cross the desert and Oliver also bought extra supplies just to make sure that in case they ran out of supplies the rest wouldn't die of heat.
"We finally have everything ready, we better hurry" Oliver said.
"I can't wait to see Nami-san and Vivi-chan with these outfits" Sanji said excitedly.
"Shut up with the names" Oliver told him feeling the strong smell of the city. 'Perfume had never bothered me this much'
They started walking to head towards the rest of the crew until they felt they were being followed.
They looked at each other and quickly slipped into an alley where a group of men entered who were all defeated by Oliver and Sanji.
"And who are these guys?" Sanji said grabbing the bought items again.
"They might have been thieves or they heard Vivi's name so they came to attack us for not keeping our mouths shut" Oliver told him emphasizing Vivi's part.
"You're right" Sanji said.
"Next time we are in a situation like this don't go saying the crew's names so stupidly" Oliver scolded him.
Both hurried to get back with the rest of the crew as soon as possible.
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The crew had found a place on the outskirts of Nanohana to take shelter while waiting for them to arrive.
Oliver and Sanji returned with all the supplies where the first thing Sanji did was hand the clothes to Nami, Vivi and Elegg who were trying on the clothes Sanji bought which were a little... exotic since they were dancer clothes.
"It's wonderful! I like this kind of clothes." Nami said happily.
"I know I asked you to buy us some clothes, but isn't this what dancers wear?" Vivi asked embarrassed.
"And the clothes are a little tight, I think a size bigger would have been fine" Elegg said adjusting the clothes.
"It's great! You look beautiful in those clothes!" Sanji said with hearts in his eyes and a blush on his face.
"I had asked for commoner's clothes..." Vivi said sweating a little.
"Dancers are also commoners and it's fine as long as they don't discover you are a princess and a pirate, right?" Sanji said with a smile.
"But we are in the deser..." Vivi was saying, but she was interrupted by Sanji.
"Don't worry! If you get tired, I will carry you!" Sanji said laughing and Vivi simply accepted that it was no use.
"He's not going to listen to me." Vivi said tiredly.
"Don't worry, I bought normal clothes anyway. I wasn't going to let the idiot choose the clothes" Oliver said taking a water bottle.
"Thank you." Vivi said relieved.
"Compared to them, you guys don't look like pirates anymore, you look like bandits." Sanji said while the rest ate.
"And what difference is there with you? And why only a hat for you?" Zoro asked Oliver.
"I tolerate the heat better than any of you, that's why I don't need to take care of myself as much." Oliver told him.
"Chopper, what are you doing?" Usopp asked curiously seeing Chopper lying down holding his nose.
"The smell is killing me..." Chopper said tired and annoyed.
"Is he not feeling well?" Nami asked.
"It has to be all that perfume in the air, I must admit it's very annoying" Oliver said scratching his nose.
"The perfume?" Nami asked confused.
"Sure, Tony-kun has a very sensitive nose. Some perfumes are quite strong. Nanohana is very famous for its many perfumes. There are very potent ingredients in them"
Vivi explained while Chopper cried over the smell.
"This one?" Nami said with a smile putting on more perfume.
"STOP ALREADY!" Chopper yelled in pain with his eyes wide open.
"I'll be in love until death!" Sanji said falling to the ground with hearts in his eyes.
"Can you be any more of an idiot?" Zoro asked while drinking.
"HUH?!" Sanji yelled furious almost starting a fight.
"Alright, we have all the supplies we need to cross the desert." Vivi said causing the near confrontation to stop.
"Vivi, where did you say we are heading?" Nami asked her.
"Well, the first thing I want is to stop the rebellion, we don't know when it might happen and cause a bloodbath. So, we're going to their base, where their leader lives. It's an Oasis city called Yuba. To get to Yuba we have to..." Vivi started to say until Zoro pulled her arm.
"Hide!" Zoro said alarmed.
"What?" Vivi said surprised by the sudden pull.
"The marines. What are they doing here?!" Zoro said seeing the marines.
"Looks like there's a lot of uproar." Usopp said.
"Maybe it's a pirate." Zoro said.
"Don't you guys think it's..." Elegg said.
The marines ran chasing an unknown pirate until they saw that who they were following was Luffy.
"IT'S YOU?!" They all yelled seeing him run.
Luffy looked to the side and saw all his nakama.
"Hi, Zoro! Are you all there?" Luffy said with a smile making the marines notice them.
"Idiot, get rid of them first!" Zoro yelled at him.
"There's the Straw Hat crew! There!"
"What do we do now?" Usopp asked scared.
"And what a stupid question? Of course we have to escape, we can't fight right now" Oliver said.
"Let's go to the ship!" Vivi yelled.
Everyone ran away while Luffy didn't understand it.
"What are you guys doing?! Come back!" Luffy yelled getting ahead.
"I COULD SAY THE SAME!" They yelled annoyed.
"Don't let them escape!" A marine yelled.
"Fall back!" Smoker said easily passing him.
"Captain Smoker!"
"I'm not going to let you escape! White Blow!" Smoker yelled throwing his smoke fist towards Luffy, however, someone intervened.
"Kagerou!/Heat Haze"
The sudden fire attack immediately stopped Smoker's smoke.
"What do you want?" Smoker asked a young man who stood in his way.
"Let him go. You may be smoke, but I am fire. A fight between our powers would have no end." The mysterious young man said.
"Another Devil Fruit ability user?!" Zoro asked.
"Who is he and why is he helping us?" Usopp asked.
"Ace?!" Luffy said shocked to see him.
"You haven't changed a bit in these years, Luffy." Ace said with a smile.
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