Chapter Text
The sun rises into a sky of pale blue. Headlights come on, steam puffing from exhaust pipes, parents hustling their children to eat quickly or they’ll miss the bus. Quiet neighborhoods waking up everywhere.
The kitchen is alive, the stovetop heating oatmeal, the refrigerator being opened and closed on repeat. Milk, orange juice, lunch meat, lettuce and cheese. Bread is grabbed from the bread box, butter knives and spoons from the utensil drawer near the sink.
A flurry of sandwich making and lunch packing, apples grabbed from the fruit basket, empty cereal and oatmeal bowls dumped in the sink. The scuffle and shuffling near the door of shoes, children grumbling and arguing sleepily. Kisses on the cheek, car keys grabbed.
The door closes, the car starts.
After a few minutes, all is silent in the house. The lights are off, the curtains closed. The bedrooms are empty, a single drop of water dripping from the faucet.
“The coast is clear.” Smoker grumbles from the ceiling, his tiny light blinking red. The house comes alive, the curtains ruffling, a spoon hops out of the utensil drawer, cautiously approaching his superior in the center of the kitchen.
“Erm, C-Captain Coby reporting, Sir!” he squeaks. With a rumble, the oven door opens, a small cloud of smoke emerging from within.
“Report, Captain,” Admiral Sakazuki growls. The timer on the display switches to read NAVY instead of the hour.
“Y-yes Sir, uh, well. The um. Straw Hat Luffy appears to have left the h-house Sir, along with the compass, N-nami, and the steak knife, Z-zoro–”
The kitchen erupts in fury and confusion. Magnets on the refrigerator yelling, Tashigi the paring knife hops up and down in anger. Hina huffs, the two birds Jango and Fullbody, inside her cage bars squeaking and squawking.
The overhead lamp flicks on and off to get the chorus to quiet down. “So they’ve escaped hmmmm~?” Borsalino says, his lightswitch flicking.
Cold air whooshes out of Kuzan’s freezer door, a chuckle followed by “Arara…That’s quite something.”
“No it ain’t, it’s blasphemous! What’re they tryin’ ta do, spook the humans?!” yells Aramaki, his basil leaves quaking from the window sill.
A rumble comes through the pipes as the sink stops the argument before it can start. “There is no doubt they must be brought back, regardless of their motives” Issho says, hot and cold handles turning back and forth.
“Or purged, now that they have escaped, they will continue to cause trouble should we make the mistake of welcoming them back.” Sakazuki says coldly. The stove top glows ominously, a flame heating the metal rings.
The old coat rack hops into the kitchen doorway, drawing everyone’s eyes. “My grandson sure is causing a ruckus isn’t he?” Garp guffaws, wood tines quaking with laughter. The flames on Sakazuki’s top grow alarmingly large, the metal rings smoking! Smoker beeps once to tell him to dial it back.
The flames shrink, but barely.
A sigh fills the air, heavy and irritated. From high above the cabinets, sits the clock on the wall. His pendulum moves back and forth. “Quiet, all of you. This matter is very serious, Garp and you know the consequences.”
The coats on Garp sag a little but he nods at his old friend, the Fleet Admiral.
“Captain Coby, put together a team, and capture Strawhat Luffy and the others, by whatever means necessary. This is a matter of utmost importance.” The kitchen is quiet at Sengoku’s decree. Coby bends forward then hops away.
“Requesting to join the pursuit team!” Tashigi cries out. Smoker blips on the ceiling, irritation evident that his missing presence would alert the humans to something being amiss. Sengoku waves her follow Coby into the living room, his minute hand twitching.
“Never a dull day, ehhh?~” Borsalino flickers. Everyone rolls their eyes.
The house settles, the sun drifts across the sky. Just another day in a normal average neighborhood.