Luffy was sitting in his favorite spot in the whole world, on top of Merry’s figurehead. The ocean was so big! And the sky was so blue! He never got tired of looking at it. Shanks was probably looking at it too. Luffy wondered whether maybe Shanks was thinking of him too. Of course he was, he decided, because cool people like Shanks never forgot a friend.
Luffy had a lot of friends now. He had Zoro, who sometimes acted like he wasn’t his friend but Luffy knew better. And Nami, who told him what to do so he wouldn’t screw up. And Usopp, who did lots of cool stuff, but Luffy couldn’t remember it all now. And Sanji, who gave Luffy food, and that made him the coolest of all!
And he had Vivi. Vivi was really nice and sweet, and she was always worrying about everyone. Luffy bet she never forgot a friend either. And she had a really cool duck! But Luffy liked Vivi better than the duck.
He leaned back and looked at the deck upside down. Zoro and Carue were sleeping on the deck, and Usopp was up in the crow’s nest. He guessed Sanji was cooking or something. And Nami was probably in the lounge. But he couldn’t find Vivi. Where was Vivi?
“Hey Usopp,” he shouted. “Where’s Vivi?”
“Vivi?” Usopp shouted back. “She’s at the stern. Why’re you asking?”
“Dunno,” Luffy replied as he rolled off the figurehead. He brushed himself off, then ran to go see Vivi. She was leaning against the railing. At first Luffy thought she was looking at the ocean or the sky, but when he saw her face she didn’t really seem to be looking at either of them. That was weird. He wondered what she was looking at instead.
“Hey Vivi,” he said, “what’re you looking at?” Vivi started. Luffy frowned. He didn’t want to scare her. He didn’t like the way her face looked when she was scared.
“Actually, Luffy,” she said, “I’m not really looking at anything. I’m thinking.”
“Thinking?” Luffy said as he hopped up on the railing. “What’re you thinking about?”
“Just Arabasta,” she said with a sigh. Luffy didn’t like the way her face looked when she was sad, either.
“What about Arabasta?”
“About the people.”
“What about the people?”
Vivi buried her face in her hands. Luffy waited a few minutes, then put a hand on her shoulder.
“Vivi?” he asked. She looked up at him. She was still sad. Luffy didn’t like that at all.
“I was just thinking about how I want to make all the people of Arabasta happy again,” she said. Luffy smiled. Vivi was a really great person. All the people of Arabasta were her friends, and she didn’t forget a single one of them.
“Don’t worry, Vivi,” he said. “Of course Arabasta will be happy again. You’ll be there!”
He liked Vivi’s smiling face the best of all.
