The Straw Hat Pirates' food consumption was incredibly fast, something that gave Sanji quite a headache.
Even though he stuffed the ship's refrigerator full every time and prepared giant mousetraps, it couldn't stop a certain straw-hat-wearing glutton from stealing food at night.
And besides Luffy, the number one rice bucket, there was also Sherlock on the ship, whose appetite was only slightly smaller.
Although the powers of the Mirror-Mirror Fruit were very strong, he needed to eat massive amounts of food to replenish energy after every use. Moreover, ever since Sherlock developed "Mirror Fusion," a new ability that consumed extreme amounts of stamina, his need for sleep had also increased.
Sherlock's daily routine on the ship these days was eat, train, sleep—he was catching up to a certain mammal with a long nose and big ears.
Therefore, Luffy and Usopp could only starve as they picked up fishing rods, sitting on the ship's railing, intending to try their luck.
"I'm so hungry, I can't catch any fish at all..."
"Isn't this all your fault? Luffy, you actually ate the bait! How are we supposed to fish now?"
"Shishishi, bugs are still pretty tasty. I ate plenty of bugs in the mountains when I was a kid." Luffy laughed heartlessly. "But, Usopp, do you think we can catch a Sea King with this?"
"I remember Sherlock saying Sea King meat is delicious, and they're so big..." Speaking of this, the idiot captain immediately drooled.
"Sea Kings? That's a piece of cake!" Usopp puffed out his chest proudly, bragging forcefully, "I am the Fishing King Usopp! Last time at Little Garden, if the giant masters hadn't acted first, I would have shown you how to reel in that giant goldfish!"
Luffy looked at the long-nose beside him with eyes full of extreme suspicion. "Is that so? But you were clearly shaking all over from fear back then..."
"Idiot, I was shaking from excitement!"
"Gaa, gaa..." Karoo, who was being used as bait, let out extremely uneasy wails.
Sherlock lay on a deck chair with his eyes closed, taking an afternoon nap with a peaceful face.
"Mr. Glasses really likes to sleep lately..."
Tiptoeing to cover the sleeping Sherlock with a blanket, Princess Vivi looked at the Sorcerer's quiet sleeping face, the corners of her mouth curving into a pretty arc.
"...Sleeping out here like this, isn't he afraid of catching a cold?"
"You don't understand, Vivi." Zoro spoke solemnly. "Sleeping under the blowing sea breeze during the day is quite a pleasant thing."
It seemed the green-haired swordsman spoke from deep experience.
"Che, you mosshead." Sanji lit a cigarette, his face full of disdain. "I wonder which guy was snoring away on the deck back then, not doing any work, and couldn't be woken up no matter what."
"Bastard!" Zoro grabbed Sanji's suit collar with a dark face, looking fierce. "Do you want to fight? Idiot curly-brows!"
"Bring it on, who's afraid of who!"
Watching the two wrestling together, Vivi just smiled awkwardly; it seemed she was already accustomed to their extremely special way of communicating.
"This guy sleeps too soundly. He doesn't react at all to such noise."
Nami looked at the still calm-faced Sherlock, then smiled slightly at the blue-haired girl. "Don't worry, Vivi. Even if he catches a cold, it doesn't matter."
"Doesn't our ship already have an excellent ship doctor? Right, Dr. Chopper?" After speaking, Nami looked smilingly at the little reindeer nearby.
The little reindeer, who was grinding medicine powder, froze upon hearing this, then jumped up, cursing while dancing with joy.
"Idiot, idiot, even if you praise me like that, I won't be happy! You bastard!"
(You're clearly very happy.)
A while later, a thick white fog appeared in the sea ahead. Nami's explanation was that this was water vapor caused by an undersea volcanic eruption, so there was no need to worry. But as the Going Merry passed through this fog, Luffy and Usopp, who were fishing, simultaneously let out a cry of surprise.
"Is that thing a human??!!"
"Gaa! Gaa!!"
"Oh no! This maiden actually accidentally hugged the land duck that passed by this maiden!"
Splash! The sound of someone falling into the water!
"This maiden?" The curly-browed cook, who had ceased fire with the green-haired swordsman, felt his spirit shake. He naively thought that someone using the self-address "This maiden" must be a relatively traditional lady with a bad throat. To carry out his chivalry, Sanji jumped into the sea without a second word.
"Don't panic, I'm coming to save you!"
However, when the excited Sanji saw the face of the drowning person, he instantly felt like he was struck by lightning five times over.
(How the hell is this an okama??!!)
The over-stimulated Sanji swallowed several mouthfuls of bitter seawater, then his vision went black, and he actually sank down as well.
"Crap! Sanji is drowning too!" Usopp cried out.
"Someone's drowning! Doctor! Where is a doctor?!" The panicked little reindeer was almost crying from anxiety, then he suddenly realized, "Eh? Aren't I a doctor?"
"Sanji! Don't be afraid, I'm coming to save you!" The funny captain, concerned for his partner, jumped down without hesitation amidst everyone's horrified gazes, lacking any awareness of being a hammer (landlubber) himself.
Nami held her forehead with her hand and sighed helplessly.
To save one person, two almost drowned along with them; that was truly something.
"Luffy, thank you, but stop adding to the mess!" Zoro looked with black lines on his face at the three figures sinking downwards, then jumped into the sea.
Sure enough, at critical moments, only the mosshead can save the world!
(I was wondering why I didn't see Karoo for so long, he was actually used as bait...)
(Can these people really save my country?) At this moment, Princess Vivi suddenly expressed serious doubts about this.
"(~)zZ" Sherlock continued to sleep beautifully, his face calm, as if he existed in a different dimension from this chaotic group of people.
"I didn't expect to be saved by strangers who are pirates. This maiden will never forget your great kindness in this life!"
"The seawater here is really cold..." The rescued okama said unceremoniously, "Could this maiden ask you for a bowl of hot soup by the way?"
"Don't even think about it!" Sanji, who looked like he had "seen through the vanity of the world and his heart was old," immediately refused upon being rescued. "There is no soup for you here!"
Actually, in the past, the kind-hearted Mr. Cook might have still made a bowl of soup, but his mood was currently at rock bottom. Most critically, there was no food left on the ship.
The okama man glanced at Sanji, blinking those eyes with exaggerated false lashes. "This maiden remembers you were the first to come save this maiden just now."
"Even though you can't swim yourself, you still came to save people. This maiden admires a brave and kind person like you the most!" After speaking, this okama threw a flirtatious wink full of myriad expressions.
(What is going on? Why has my right eyelid been twitching non-stop since I met this okama...)
Sanji felt a door to hell opening for him. Pale-faced, he turned his head away, intending to smoke a cigarette to calm his nerves, but the cigarettes and matches on him were soaked by seawater, so he had to go back to his room to get them.
"You're a Devil Fruit user, right?" Zoro asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's right... so this maiden is a hammer~" The tall okama stood up with exaggerated movements and spun around like a ballet dancer. Those movements, heavy yet appearing light, made Vivi, who had practiced dance since childhood, secretly admire him.
(This okama looks a bit weird, but his body is really flexible.)
"You ate a Devil Fruit too?" Luffy, having vomited out the seawater in his stomach, asked excitedly. "What's your ability?"
"This?..." The spinning okama man inadvertently saw Sherlock sleeping on the deck chair. His eyes shot out two beams of light as if he had discovered a new continent.
"Ow~ There's another handsome guy sleeping here ow~~"
"Since this maiden's ship hasn't arrived yet and there's nothing to do, this maiden might as well perform for you!"
After speaking, this okama walked over to Sherlock with extremely coquettish steps. With his back to everyone, he gently touched the Sorcerer's face with his right hand.
"Wow, this little brother's skin is quite nice yo~~~" The tone of the okama's voice was still chilling, but his original slightly raspy sissy voice had changed into a clear male voice full of magnetism.
"This familiar voice, isn't it..." Nami's expression changed.
"Could his ability be..." Usopp suddenly remembered what Sanji had said a few days ago.
"This isn't a joke yo!" The okama man, who had turned into Sherlock's appearance, suddenly turned his head back, wearing an exaggerated facial expression.
Boom!!!! It was as if a bolt from the blue exploded in the minds of Nami and the others, roasting them inside and out.
All this time, Sherlock had always appeared calm, composed, noble, and aloof in front of everyone, and Nami and the others were used to the Sorcerer being this way. As for a funny version of Sherlock... let alone seeing it, they couldn't even imagine it.
Just like you couldn't imagine Sanji becoming gay or Luffy becoming a vegetarian.
But this time, everyone's horizons were truly broadened.
"Ahahahaha... Anyone whose face I've touched, I can turn into their appearance!" The funny version of "Sherlock" touched the faces of the stupefied group one by one, then danced ballet like a ballerina.
"Whether it's looks, build, or body type, it's exactly the same."
"This is the ability of this maiden's Clone-Clone Fruit~~~~"
"So, so cool!!! Your ability is so interesting!" Luffy's eyes twinkled with little stars. Then, as if he thought of something, he turned and ran into the galley.
"Um, could you not speak in a sissy tone while wearing that face..." Vivi looked with disappointment at "Sherlock" who was dancing ladies' ballet. Although she knew very well this wasn't the real Sorcerer, this impactful image was truly unacceptable to the blue-haired girl.
Nami, Zoro, and the others nodded in deep agreement.
"Oh... Can do yo~~~ This maiden has a memory function!"
After speaking, the okama man began a face-changing performance, cycling through all the faces he had stored, making Usopp and Chopper whistle in excitement.
(Wait, that face isn't...) Vivi's face changed color drastically.
"Hey, turn into Sherlock's appearance again!" Luffy ran out of the kitchen like the wind, clutching a handful of chopsticks in his hand...
Usopp, with his amazing eyesight, looked at the chopsticks in Luffy's hand, sweat dripping from his forehead as his whole body shook uneasily.
(That guy couldn't be wanting to...)
When Sanji walked out of the boys' room with a cigarette in his mouth, he saw such a frenzied scene.
Luffy, Chopper, and "Sherlock" were standing side by side, chopsticks inserted in their noses, laughing loudly while dancing a cheerful dance.
"Holy sh..."
Sanji, standing frozen in place, couldn't help but curse, but this simple curse couldn't express one ten-thousandth of his mood right now.
The Sorcerer, Sarsalian Sherlock, the most normal person in the Straw Hat Pirates, was dancing—and it was the funny dance with chopsticks in his nostrils. Oh my god, is the world coming to an end?
One could only say that today, Sherlock's lifetime of fame was destroyed in a single day, and he himself was sleeping unaware.
Only when the cigarette butt burned his hand did the curly-browed cook snap out of it. He turned to look elsewhere and found that Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and the big duck Karoo were staying far away from that funny trio and the sleeping Sherlock, with expressions of inexplicable horror.
As for Princess Vivi, she was curled up in Nami's arms with a painful look, obviously unable to accept the scene before her that destroyed her worldview.
"That day at the banquet when Luffy invented this chopstick-in-nose dance, he said he really wanted to see Sherlock dance it, but Sherlock tactfully refused back then. I didn't expect, I didn't expect, this time actually..." Usopp covered his eyes and whispered the scoop to Nami and the others.
"That guy Luffy, does he have a grudge against Sherlock?" Nami comforted the crumbling Vivi while looking at the idiot captain who was hugging "Sherlock" and laughing happily. "Or is he naturally black-hearted?"
"I don't know if there's a grudge." Zoro's mouth twitched violently. He felt the blinding scene before him was challenging the limit of his tough swordsman's heart.
"But what I do know is, if Sherlock wakes up now and finds someone wearing his face doing such funny things, I estimate we'll have to change ships..."
As a merchant who believed in "harmony brings wealth," Sherlock was always amiable to everyone, and judging by his gentle and refined appearance, he was a good-natured nice guy. But Zoro, with his strong intuition, knew very well that anyone who dared to anger this man who dared to publicly attack a Marine branch would definitely suffer unbearable retaliation.
Several people looked together at the Sorcerer who was still sleeping soundly, and silently breathed a sigh of relief in their hearts.
"Phew, luckily he sleeps pretty soundly..."
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