"Hey, look! Zoro knows that guy!" Usopp muttered.
"What's going on here?" Nami wondered.
Down on the lower deck, Zoro and Johnny were laying a sickly man on a green beach towel while everyone but Nami was watching in concern. He was pale and looked like hell. This was Yosaku, and he was dangerously sick. Nami went out of the kitchen to examine the situation.
"He just got worse and worse and I didn't know what to do!" Johnny cried. Zoro placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Who knew that jerk could be so comforting? "So I thought, maybe we could just rest on a little island. But then a cannonball came flying into our ship!"
I winced. That would be Lucy and Usopp's 'cannon firing practice.'
Johnny broke down in tears and the idiot duo's jaws dropped in horror. They leapt to their feet and bowed in unison. "Sorry!"
"Sorry isn't good enough," Johnny told them. "Isn't that right… partner?!"
"!"
He looked up to Zoro, tears pouring out of his eyes. "Aniki, give it to me straight. Is he gonna die?"
The master swordsman gritted his teeth. Nami finally reached us, muttering, "Idiot!"
"Watch it!" Zoro growled.
"He's not gonna die, he just has scurvy," I told the crew while Nami pulled Yosaku's tongue and checked his eyes.
"She's right," she confirmed. "Lucy, Usopp, we have some limes in the storage. What are you doing? Go get 'em now!"
They shot over to the storage room, stumbling into each other in the doorway but eventually bringing out a barrelful of fruits that looked like green lemons. Under Nami and my instructions, they squeezed the juice of the limes into Yosaku's open mouth.
"So, what's scurvy?" Usopp asked.
"It used to be a hopeless disease that plagued sailors, but we just know how to deal with it now," Nami said with an air of almost amused, though very much irritated, disbelief. "Honestly, don't you guys know anything ? At least Yuril seems to have basic knowledge of the sea. Anyway, Johnny'll be just fine in a couple of days."
"Really, Aneki?" Johnny said enthusiastically, spitting in Nami's face by accident. "Cool, Aneki!"
She winced and wiped her face. "It's not like I'm a magician. And stop calling me that, it's stupid."
"I'm the psychic here," I told him. "Artwaltz D. Yuril at your service!"
"Really? Cool, Yuril-aneki!"
"Ah, it's nothing."
Usopp and Lucy continued squeezing lime juice into Yosaku's mouth. Meanwhile, Nami explained about scurvy. "It's a disease caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. Back in the old days, they didn't store fruit because they didn't know how, but we do now."
Lucy was dutifully ignoring her. "If a little's good, a lot's gooder," she mused. She stuffed a bunch of limes in the sick man's mouth and turned to her navigator. "You're really smart! You're like a doctor!"
Usopp bragged about something. I wasn't quite sure what he had to brag about.
"Yep, she's smart as a tack." Lucy nodded.
...And cue the demoness. "YOU GUYS ARE JUST IDIOTS! EVERY SAILOR SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SCURVY! "
Suddenly, Yosaku spit out the limes and sat up, looking much better. His face, which had previously been paler than a sheet, had regained much of its original tan color.
Nami was baffled. "Eh!?"
"Partner!" Johnny sobbed in relief. The two cried and hugged, then linked arms and did a strange kickline-skip dance thing in a circle, shouting, "Hooray, hooray!" Let me just say that it was the stupidest thing I'd ever seen—and I'd been seeing a lot of stupid in the past day and a half, so I knew what I was talking about!"
My eye twitched.
"YOU CAN'T HEAL THAT QUICKLY!" the orange haired and I shouted in exasperation.
The two stopped dancing and stood straight. In unison, they said, "Allow us to introduce ourselves."
"My name's Johnny."
"And I'm Yosaku."
"Together we're the baddest bounty hunting duo in the world! Zoro-aniki there used to be one of us. "
"Glad to make your acquaintance," Yosaku finished.
Zoro smirked and walked forward. "Small world. Never thought I'd see you guys again."
"Well if you think you're surprised…"
"…We never imagined that the great pirate hunter Zoro would become a pirate himself!"
"Tell me about it," the first mate muttered. He and Johnny clasped hands.
"Aniki."
Yosaku reached his hand out… and promptly collapsed.
"WE TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULDN'T HEAL THAT QUICKLY!"
***
Later that night, Yosaku had been placed in the boy's cabin while he got better, and we were all sitting around the table in the kitchen to eat supper. It was past ten at least, which kind of surprised me a little. The last time I'd stayed up past ten... I couldn't even remember the last time I'd stayed up past ten. Living on the streets had taught me to get to sleep as early as you could, and get as much rest as possible. I was already finding it hard to stay awake.
Nami told us, "Let this be a lesson to you." We were still on the subject of scurvy.
"Yeah. This is the kind of trouble you get yourself into when you choose a life on the sea," Zoro agreed.
Usopp piped up. "Which means when we're at sea, we've gotta learn how to get the right amount of nutrients with little food."
"It's absolutely necessary that someone on this ship knows how to do that."
I yawned.
Lucy took a bite of bread. "Necessary? Right! This ship needs a cook!"
We stared at her, a little shocked that Lucy, of all people, was actually able to come up with such a good idea. But on second thought, it did make sense, seeing as how Lucy was constantly thinking of food. But still...
"Hey, Usopp, Lucy can say something smart!" I said in awe.
"I'm in!" he agreed. "That way we can have good food, even when we're at sea!"
"That's right! You got it!" She stuck her tongue out.
"If you need a cook, I know just the place, and the food is gonna blow your minds!" Johnny spoke up.
"Whoa! Really? Do you mean that sea restaurant?"
"Yeah, the Baratie. How do you know about it?"
"I told them last night," I said with a yawn. My eyelids were bowling balls.
Johnny shrugged. "Whatever. Consider yourself warned! This place is close to the Grand Line, and lately I've been hearing rumors that a certain hawk-eyed man you're looking for is there." He directed the last part to his pal Zoro, who gripped his swords and looked up, his face a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. "Set a course, north-northeast!"
"Yay!" Lucy cheered.
"Cool!" said Usopp.
"Shishishishishi!"
"Our destination is the Sea Restaurant, the Baratie!"