It's been 5 days since they left the Drum Kingdom, and the Going Merry continues slowly on its way to Alabasta. Right now, Luffy's stomach was growling.
"I'm hungry... The fish aren't biting..." complained a starving Luffy.
"LUFFY, it's your fault because you even ate the bait! If we don't have bait, the fish won't bite!" said Usopp angrily as Vivi came down the stairs.
"You ate too!" said Luffy in his defense.
"I only ate what was on the lid of the bait box," said Usopp.
"Everything would be easier if Oliver brought out more food," said Luffy with a smile.
"The fact that you ate what I brought out five days ago isn't my problem. You need to learn not to eat so much," Oliver told them, watching them fish. "I think we'll have to lock the fridge to stop you from overeating."
"Luffy-san, Usopp-san, did you catch anything?" she asked with a smile.
Suddenly Vivi heard Karoo's squawk, which confused her—until she saw that the two were using the poor animal as bait.
"AAAAAAAH! KAROO!" Vivi screamed in concern.
"I wonder if we can catch a shark."
"I wanna catch a Sea King."
"What are you doing to Karoo?!" said Vivi angrily, grabbing Luffy and Usopp by the head and smashing them together.
Both of them fell over the railing, causing Karoo to rise up, saving him from becoming fish food.
'I feel like I'm forgetting something,' thought Oliver as he tried to remember—
"What's that?"
Vivi looked ahead, where a large cloud of smoke blocked her view—right in the direction they were headed.
"Smoke!" Vivi shouted.
"What's that?" said Usopp, puzzled, now standing next to Luffy while still using Karoo as bait.
"Is it cotton candy?" asked a hungry Luffy.
"I'll go get Nami-san," said Vivi, alarmed as she ran toward the kitchen.
"That's not..."
Oliver was about to explain what it was, but he felt something strange behind him, so he quickly turned around.
'That was...'
He remembered that scream that made him tremble again.
'Forget it. Let it go. It's nothing,' he told himself, trying to suppress it.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Nami was drawing one of her maps, Chopper was reading a book, and Sanji was doing nothing in particular.
"Nami-san! We have a problem! Come quickly!" Vivi said urgently, making everyone leave the kitchen to see what was going on.
"Don't worry, it's nothing. It's just steam," Nami said calmly.
"Steam coming from the sea?" Vivi asked, confused.
"Yeah, it's a hot spot," said Nami.
"What's that?" asked Luffy.
"It's an area where magma forms. There's an underwater volcano beneath it."
Nami explained, helping Luffy understand.
"A volcano under the sea?" asked Chopper.
"That's right. There are more underwater volcanoes than ones on land," Nami explained to the little reindeer.
"If it's not food, I don't care," said Luffy, losing interest and continuing to fish.
"With a volcano like that, a new island could form in a thousand or tens of thousands of years," Nami said with a smile.
"You're amazing, Nami-swan!" said Sanji, praising her as always.
"What an incredible phenomenon," said Vivi.
"Tens of thousands of years... I wonder if I'll live that long," said Luffy.
"You're human, so I think you'll die before that," said Usopp as Karoo continued squawking.
"Did you catch anything?" Sanji asked the two.
"Sanji, I'm hungry. Cook something," Luffy told him as his stomach growled.
"You're hopeless... I'll go to the storage room and thoroughly check if there's any food left," said Sanji, walking away.
Oliver sat down for a moment to try to relax—something Vivi noticed, but she couldn't ask him about it because the ship passed through the steam.
The ship passed through the steam, making everyone cough as they inhaled it.
"It smells like sulfur!" said Usopp, disgusted.
"I can't see anything! This steam is everywhere!" Luffy shouted.
"Hang in there. We should be through it soon," said Nami, also displeased.
When they finally emerged from the steam, Luffy and Usopp were shocked to see what they had caught.
"DAMN IT! Why did I jump on the duck I suddenly ran into?!" said a strange man, staring at Karoo, whose eyes were full of tears.
"Is he human?" Luffy asked Usopp, sweating and confused.
"No idea," said Usopp, just as confused.
The man let go of Karoo and fell into the sea, unable to swim—and started to sink.
--
--
The crew helped the extravagant okama out of the sea, and he was now aboard the Merry.
"I thought I was going to die... I'm grateful to you. I never would have thought I'd be saved by completely unknown pirates. I'll never forget your kindness for the rest of my life! Could you give me a hot soup?" he thanked and asked.
"WE DON'T HAVE ANY!" they all shouted angrily.
"WE'RE THE ONES WHO ARE HUNGRY!" Zoro shouted, annoyed.
"You guys need to learn not to eat so much, or we might end up falling into cannibalism," Oliver said, looking up at the clouds, feeling a little better. 'That steam relaxed my mind, which is rare.'
Then the strange man looked at Vivi.
"Wow! You're a real beauty! You're my type! I want to eat you!" said the weird man with a smile, blowing her a kiss and winking.
'What a strange guy.' Vivi thought, feeling disgusted by his attempt to flirt.
"So you can't swim either," Luffy said.
"That's right, because I ate a Devil Fruit," the strange man replied.
"Really? What kind?" Usopp asked.
"Well, I have to wait for my ship to come back for me, so I'll give you a shocking demonstration. This is my power!"
The strange man gave Luffy a strong slap across the face, knocking him backwards.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Zoro shouted, grabbing his katana.
"Wait! Wait! This is part of my demonstration," he said, now speaking with Luffy's voice but with a strange accent. "I told you it would be a shocking demonstration!"
Zoro, who was about to attack, froze when he saw the strange man now had Luffy's face and voice.
"Huh? But that's my face!" Luffy exclaimed.
"Impressed?! Impressed?! Gahahaha!" laughed the strange man, striking a bizarre pose while most of the crew looked shocked. "If I touch myself with my left hand, I go back to normal. This is the power of the Mane Mane no Mi."
"The voice."
"Even the body is the same."
Nami and Usopp were both impressed and terrified by the power of that Devil Fruit.
"WOAH!" Luffy exclaimed, impressed. But then he noticed the man only touched the others' faces. "WHY DID YOU SLAP ME THEN?!"
The strange man touched the faces of Nami, Usopp, Zoro, and Chopper, who were nearby—unlike Oliver and Vivi, who were on the upper deck, and Sanji, who was in the storeroom.
"If I just touch their face with my right hand, I can mimic anyone like this," said the man, changing form to each of them until he reached Nami. "Down to the tiniest detail."
The strange man opened his coat, showing Nami's naked body, causing Chopper, Usopp, and Luffy to widen their eyes—only for Nami to instantly punch all four of them.
"Stop it!" Nami shouted, furious.
'He's truly weird, but we'll need him to escape Alabasta... and then he becomes Luffy's friend in Impel Down.'
"Hey, are you okay?" Luffy asked, crouching down.
"So much pain... I'm sorry, but that's all I can show you," the strange man said, getting up.
"You're amazing! Do it again!" Luffy encouraged while Usopp whistled with his fingers and Chopper raised his arms, yelling.
"Well, if you insist, I'll have to do it..." said the strange man, raising his leg like a ballerina.
"Yay!" the three shouted happily.
"They're excited," said Nami, with Zoro lying on the ground.
"Let them be. At least they're not complaining about the food," Oliver told her.
"Oliver-san, are you alright?" Vivi asked him.
"And that question?" Oliver replied.
"It's just... you seemed a little strange," Vivi said, making Oliver remember that scream again.
Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper were having fun with the man, while the rest didn't understand why.
"Hey, isn't that a ship?" Oliver asked, pointing at a ship, trying to change the subject.
The man stepped to the edge of the ship.
"Is it already time to say goodbye? That's a shame," he said, alarming the three, who looked sad.
"Don't go!" Usopp pleaded as tears formed in his eyes.
"Don't be sad. Journeys always come with farewells. But don't forget this: friendship has nothing to do with how long you've known someone. Don't cry!"
The man jumped to the other ship, which made the three of them start crying and waving goodbye.
"Let's go, boys!" he ordered his subordinates.
"Yes, Mr. 2, Bon Clay-sama!" all his subordinates said in unison, giving a military salute.
Bon Clay's ship quickly sailed away, leaving the crew stunned at the identity of the okama they had saved.
"MR. 2?!" Usopp shouted, shocked.
"That's Mr. 2, Bon Clay..." Vivi said, shocked.
'I don't think he'll remember to ask me again,' Oliver thought.
"Vivi! Didn't you recognize his face?!" Luffy asked her.
"No. I never got to see Mr. 2, or Mr. 1 and his partner. I didn't know their powers either. Though I'd heard rumors... Mr. 2 is a dancer with a big upper body and talks like a woman. He always wears a jacket with 'Okama way' written on the back," Vivi said, covering her mouth with one hand while trembling.
"You could've figured it out," almost everyone scolded her for not realizing it was Mr. 2.
"Among the faces he had stored in his memory... was my father's. The face of the King of Arabasta, Nefertari Cobra," Vivi told them, fearing what might be done with that.
"If you could impersonate a king, you could do truly evil things," Zoro said.
"We let a really dangerous guy get away," said Usopp, worried.
"Is he our enemy?" Chopper asked, confused.
"He could be a problem if he's on the enemy's side. If he finds out we're his enemies... and if he transforms into one of us using his memory, we wouldn't be able to trust our own crewmates," Nami explained, thinking about a possible conflict.
"Really?" Luffy asked, not seeing that as a problem.
"Listen, Luffy..." Nami was about to explain, but Zoro cut in.
"Wait. It's true his opinion is naive, but he's right that we shouldn't be afraid. We should consider ourselves lucky to have seen him. That way, we'll know what to do against him," Zoro said with a smile.