We managed to find Main Street again, but when we emerged from the alleyways, we saw chaos. Everyone in the street was running in the same direction, to the harbor. The were screaming in fear, and we stopped one guy to ask what was going on.
"Oi, you guys better hightail it outta here!" he gasped, panting. "The Buggy Pirates are in the town square!"
Zoro narrowed his eyes. "Did you say 'Buggy?'"
"Yeah! Buggy the Pirate is gonna execute Straw Hat Lucy!" The man took off, screaming in terror again.
"They're gonna execute her?" Usopp repeated in shock.
My body started shaking. Buggy the Clown... the Clown... not good! I hated clowns! Ugh, they're so creepy and... just disgusting! There used to be a time that I had enjoyed clowns, but now whenever I even saw or heard of a clown, I got afraid. Ever since the day one had destroyed the last thing my grandma ever gave me, I've associated clowns with destruction. And now one of them was gonna kill my captain. No, my nakama.
"Hey, Yuril, what's wrong?" the sniper asked, noticing my state.
I sank to the ground, quivering. "C-Clowns," I managed. "Clowns. I... hate clowns."
"You're afraid of clowns?" Zoro summed up. "Geez, what a fear at a time like this. You'd better get over it today, because we've gotta save Lucy!" And take off in the direction opposite of the people running.
"Don't worry Yuril-chan, I'll protect you from any clowns. So let's go," said Sanji. "Hey, keep this for me and treat it like a lady." This last part was directed to Usopp and was mentioning the tuna thing.
I hesitated and then nodded. I slipped a few belli out of my bag and tossed it to Nami, who somehow managed to catch it despite the oversized shopping bags she carried. "Put that in the crow's nest," I instructed her. The crow's nest had become as much of a home as my suitcase was to me. "I've got an execution to stop."
I tore after Zoro and Sanji and caught up to them. By now the sky had grown dark with storm clouds and there was an ominous feeling in the air. You could just tell something big was about to happen. I wasn't thinking straight, though, and couldn't remember this part of the anime because of my fear.
A gust of wind ripped an item from a street vendor's shop and flung it into my face. I ripped it away to see that it was an eye patch. I blinked. Toshiro's eye patch was really cool... I grinned despite my fear and flicked the street vendor, who was yelling obscenities at me, my belli coin and he shut up. While I ran, I hastily strapped on the eye patch and felt awesome.
Then I remembered what we were running towards and immediately lost that feeling.
"Geez, how long is this street?" I muttered as we ran down it, but secretly I was thankful. Any thing that set back the time I had to meet the clowns would be welcomed.
Finally we broke through into the town square, where a huge crowd was standing stock still. We forced them to create a large circle for Lucy to be able to see us in and when they saw Zoro, they gladly obliged. "Sorry," Lucy was saying on the execution platform, a blank, bored look on her face. "I won't do it again. Please spare me."
"I WON'T SPARE YOU, YOU NINNY!" said the other person on the platform. He was tall, wore a striped red-and-white shirt, had blue hair tied back in a ponytail, and his nose was large and red.
CLOWN!
"This is the price you pay for making enemies of us!" shouted someone at the base of the platform, but I couldn't see who it was through the crowd.
"So this is the end of the woman who defeated me," said a smooth, silky woman's voice. "As for your crew, any men you have on it I shall make into my own personal boy toy and the women I'll just kill them! That is your punishment for getting Coby to say that you are the most beautiful woman on the seas!"
"But isn't that Boa Hancock?" I muttered.
"Any last words, then?" offered Buggy. "We've got quite a crowd here. I'm sure they're all very interested in what you have to say." After a few seconds, he continued. "Well, it looks like you're speechless! You are about to die, after all! Hahaha!"
"I AM THE GIRL WHO WILL BECOME PIRATE QUEEN!" Lucy yelled. The statement echoed throughout the city and the people in the crowd started muttering amongst themselves, talking about what a crazy thing that was to say in this city.
"Well, I think it's about time to end this, eh?" the evil clown said. "Gum-Gum bitch."
"THIS EXECUTION..." roared Sanji, Zoro, and I, "IS CANCELLED!"
Lucy broke out in a grin. "Yuril! Zoro! Sanji!"
Zoro thumbed open Wado Ichimonji and strapped on his green haramaki. "Aren't you taking this joke a bit too far, Lucy?" he hissed, smirking. "You sure know how to cause a ruckus, eh?"
"If it's time for the sideshow, then I guess I'll debut as well," added Sanji, lighting a cigarette.
Even though I was shaking worse than an ADHD kid hyped up on twenty packets of Skittles, I said, "Guess that makes it time for my stage performance, too. Looks like we just have to get rid of these damned clowns. Ready to play exterminator, guys?"
"Any time," Zoro chuckled darkly.
"P-Pirate Hunter Zoro!" the crowd shouted in fear, parting a wide path that we could take to the Buggy Pirates. But when I saw just how many clowns there were in the crew, I froze up. I hadn't anticipated this amount. There had to be at least forty or fifty, and although some of them were less clown-like than others, all of them had something to do with the stupid occupation on.
"C-Clowns everywhere!" I stammered, my eyes widening as I backed away and fell on my butt. "Ew, get away, get away!"
"Damn Spaz," Zoro growled. "Just get over it and help us out, will ya? The more hands we have fighting these guys, the quicker well be able to get to the execution platform!"
"HEY, GUYS!" Lucy shouted.
"At last, Zoro!" cackled Buggy. "But I'm afraid you're just a tad too late." He slowly raised his cutlass.
"I'll start with the girl who has frozen at the sight of my beauty!" announced the woman, and when she pushed through the Buggy Pirates, I was able to see that she had a very feminine face, a pirate hat like Buggy's except tan, and a cloak with hearts on it.
As the love cook and the Marimo dived into the pirates, I was unmoving on the cobblestones. The woman was racing at me, and my mind was blank except for one thought: Danger! I was in too much danger! There were clowns everywhere, Lucy was about to be executed, a massive storm was brewing, and there was a strange woman who basically wanted to murder me. One of the pirates called her 'Alvida-neesama.' The back of my neck suddenly started tingling so much I felt like I'd go crazy.
Buggy laughed his head off. "Try all you want but you'll never stop me now! This is the flashy end of your captain!"
Then Lucy shouted something that made my blood run cold. Even Alvida, who was almost upon me, stopped for a moment when Lucy called out, "YURIL! ZORO! SANJI! USOPP! NAMI! SORRY!... But I'm dead." As the enemy captain's sword descended upon her neck, she smiled.
Something inside me snapped. I snapped up to a stand and stuck my hand out, glaring at all the Buggy Pirates. Inwardly, though, I had no idea what was going on. What is this feeling? It's not fear... somehow I've gotten over that. I felt angry, but that wasn't what was driving this new emotion. It was... I didn't know what it was. But as the sword drew ever closer to Lucy's rubbery neck, a raging wave roared in my ears and I shouted, "The gods have passed judgement! Today shall not be the day Monkey D. Lucy will die!" The water vapor in the air around the execution platform changed to liquid water and the wind howled. It blew off Lucy's hat and tossed it high into the air. A cyclone of water smashed the first support beam of the platform, then the second, then the third and finally the platform was leveled. Then it swooped in front of me and washed Alvida back among the Buggy Pirates.
I collapsed to the ground, exhausted and utterly confused.
Zoro and Sanji looked at me in shocked disbelief.
Just outside of the wreckage, a man with a blue ponytail sputtered water, his body twitching.
A straw hat floated down from the sky and was caught by a girl with a scar under her eye, who placed it back on her head. "Well, whaddya know?" giggled Lucy. "I'm alive. That's a nice surprise. Thanks, Yuril!"
The Buggy Pirates' jaws had dropped so far that they were nearly touching the ground.
"N-No problem," I rasped, my energy fading. "D-Don't mention it... P-Pirate Queen."
My vision faded and the world appeared to be eaten up by an all-consuming darkness as, overhead, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled.