Part nine - Once, a liar, a cheater and a deciver met 9/??

- What about me? - Zoro asked, scowling, obviously recalling the details of their first acquaintance. - You then immediately invited me to your family, why?

- Are you serious now? - Luffy looked at him in such a way that the swordsman felt an irresistible urge to sink into the ground. However, he failed to fail, so Zoro confined himself to blushing painfully. - You actually carry your personal autobiography with you. - Luffy pointed a finger at Zoro's white katana. - In the first few seconds after we met, she told me more about you than all the information I had collected before.

- The information you collected? - Zoro repeated slowly, and then his only visible eye instantly turned red - so many vessels burst in him at once. - You mean, that day, you recognized me at first sight? - any snake in the world would envy Zoro's voice now.

Despite the past two years, the swordsman remembered the moment of his first meeting with Luffy as now. Still, on that day, his normal life ended forever, and a form of madness began, like a comet tail accompanying his captain. Considering that it is customary to follow the captain ... the feeling of "normalcy" all new family members lost in the first place.

Luffy, upon hearing the question, again gave his first mate a look like he was a complete idiot.

- By the time we met, the people already considered you the best swordsman in the East Blue. Of course I recognized you! Zoro, you have green hair and carry three swords. Any idiot who at least once heard your description is able to recognize you, and at the time of our meeting, in addition to the description, I already had several of your photos ... Although, I will not deny, when you literally fell on my head, I thought for the first couple of minutes that it's just me going crazy from the heat. By that time, I was just starting to think about going in search of you, until you were nailed or joined with someone else. And here on you, here you are, all of yourself so naive and defenseless, hit if you want. Moreover, literally burning with the desire not only to join my family, but also to become my first assistant. Honestly, I did not expect it myself!

We must pay tribute to Zoro. After all this story with Zorri "Three plunger", his level of tolerance soared to a previously completely unattainable height. A week ago, he would have tried to cut his captain into slices for a long time, and now he limited himself to closing his eye and began to take large soothing breaths and exhalations. Luffy immediately made a displeased face. It is quite predictable that he became the only one in the family who was not satisfied with Zoro's newfound ability to withstand almost all the jokes that rained down on his head. But the rest breathed a sigh of relief. It is now much safer to be around Zoro and Luffy.

- What about me? - Nami asked when Zoro finally calmed down. - You also invited me to the family from the very beginning.

- Another woodpecker! - Luffy rolled his eyes. - Well, you would rather be silent altogether. Unlike the others, I first learned about you more than four years ago, and since then I have almost never lost sight of you.

- What?! - Nami's jaw dropped to the sand.

- Yeah, then I myself could hardly believe that some brat had stolen my money, - Luffy nodded his head in understanding.

- WHAT?!! - to the jaw of Nami, lying on the sand, three additional jaws have joined.

- I understand your surprise, - the guy nodded again. - Then I almost killed all these idiots when they dared to declare to me that some fourteen-year-old girl stole all the money that was intended for me. I thought that these idiots decided to throw me, but then I decided to check and imagine my surprise when everything was confirmed ... By the way, when he found out that a girl had robbed me, my brother was laughing like a horse, - added Luffy, accusing looking at us.

- I ... did I steal your money? - finding the strength, literally whispered Nami, dead from horror.

- She stole your money ?! - with almost even more horror, chorus, exclaimed the rest of the guys, including Zoro.

- Surprise, right? - Luffy smiled broadly. - The better way to get my attention is hard to come up with.

Nami sobbed in horror, and the guys, after her, died from this very horror. Stealing money from Luffy? An even worse way to get Luffy's attention nobody of them could have imagined. And was there such a method at all?

- At first I wanted to go out and kill you, and in a particularly cruel manner, - Luffy admitted slightly embarrassedly. - But then I calmed down a little and caught a joke. Still, since childhood, I got used to the fact that I rob and kill everyone, and not vice versa. So I started paying money so that people would report to me about you. A couple of times when you were around, I even watched you myself. And I kept thinking, when will they finish you off? - the guy issued a light laugh, closing his eyes. - We even with Ace, my unlucky brother, hammered on this topic. None of us, however, have ever won. - Shaking his head slightly, Luffy let out a small laugh again, still not opening his eyes.

Now the guy was completely there, in his memories.

- You, in spite of all the bets concluded between us, stubbornly continued to steal and run away. So, over time, which is quite natural, I became interested in your abilities as a navigator and cartographer. I was so interested that I was not too lazy to check them with the help of one dummy pirate team that took you aboard. And then you showed the highest class. So, after some more time, when Zoro had already joined me, I began to seriously think about inviting you to my family. After all, we needed our own navigator, and all the other candidates did not suit me for one reason or another. I also did not want to take someone temporarily. Then Zoro and I went out to sea, where we met Ryu and Yosaka, who then became fruit users. It already became obvious that if we, in the very near future, did not find an intelligent navigator in our family, then, sooner or later, we would definitely drown. And I can't swim. There is nothing to say about Ryu and Yosaka, "stones" are "stones". That's when I made the final decision to invite you to our family. And we all know it was worth it.

After finishing sharing his memories, Luffy sighed nostalgically and opened his eyes, immediately realizing that all his speech had disappeared into the tuna. The guy's family was still trying to deal with the bomb that he dropped on them at the very beginning:

- I stole your money ... I stole your money ... I stole your money ... - like a broken record, Nami repeated the same phrase over and over again.

- She stole money from him, - Johnny said, staring blankly in front of him.

- She stole money from him, - Yosaku said, staring blankly in front of him.

- She stole the money from him, - Zoro said, staring blankly in front of him.

- She stole the money from him, - Johnny went to a new circle, the devil already knows which one.

From the point of view of most of the Straw Hat family, there were several things that were immutable in the world. Sunrise. The presence of gravity. Stars on the sky. The inability to steal money from Luffy and go unpunished. In general, immutable things, they are immutable things. And, until today, it all worked properly. The sun was rising, gravity was pulling, the stars were shining, and Luffy's money was always Luffy's money. The key word is always. Hook on the "Thing"? Are the treasures not guarded at all? Nami once also was just as naive, therefore, during the first two months, from the moment of her adoption into the family, she stubbornly continued to make almost daily attempts to escape, if not with all the treasures stored on the "Thing", then a significant part of them for sure ... Failure followed failure, but Nami did not give up. And she did not give up exactly until she saw with her own eyes what was happening to the madmen who decided to covet Luffy's money.