Chapter 45

Grandline, Paradise, Jaya

Soon after Azul and the strawhats had started talking with gusto, eating all the while and enjoying the company of each other, more and more people started to crowd the bar as the day slowly came to an end. As the bar seemed to be the only real house that remained standing which provided food as well, they began to relax inside. A few people were very tense at first when they spotted Azul but soon began to understand that not every lethal person remained in that state of mind all the time and vise versa, so they calmed down a lot, which brought another change to the atmosphere inside the bar. Some people started to drink, while others pulled out instruments, beginning to party like the last day on earth was about to end.

The strawhats of course joined in as well, inspiring Azul to do something he hadn't thought he was capable of. Standing up with a bright grin, bringing some quiet to the partying crowd, they put their focus on to Azul, who only started to grin even more.

Looking around he found a young sailor that was carrying an accordion leaning against a wall with a bottle of rum in hand, surrounded by a group of other young men, laughing and grinning alongside them. He promptly walked over, grabbed the young man by the shoulder and pulled him along, before jumping together with the young man on top of a table in the middle of the room, near the area for the dancefloor. Grabbing a nearby bottle of beer and taking a long gulp of it, burping afterwards Azul turned towards the young sailor, whispering something into the young mans ears, after which the young man nodded with a growing grin on his face. Azul, having achieved what he had brought the young man along for, brought his eyes on the murmuring crowd that was still quite tipsy and brimming with energy to keep the party going.

Coughing slightly Azul started to hum a familiar melody every sailor knows from the bottom of their hearts. Slowly but surely some other sailors, having comprehension written on their faces with a grin, began to hum alongside Azul. Soon afterwards the rest of the crowd joined in until the young man started to play in gusto, spinning around his own axis already fully hyped for the thundering mellody that would soon errupt. And so it did with a mellody that made the bar vibrate due to all the voices that joined in, while bashing their jars in tact on the tables, here and there a small laughter in happiness penetrating the song they were all singing.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,

what shall we do with the drunken sailor?

what shall we do with the drunken sailor?

what shall we do with the drunken sailor early in the morning!

Hey ho and up she rises

hey ho and up she rises

hey ho and up she rises early in the morning!

What shall we do with the drunken sailor

what shall we do with the drunken sailor

what shall we do with the drunken sailor early in the morning!

Throw him in the hull with the captains daughter

throw him in the hull with the captains daughter

Hey ho and up she rises

hey ho and up she rises

hey ho...

and on and on it went. In the middle of the song a few people had decided to quit singing and started dancing instead which made Azul laugh in happiness at the awesome atmosphere in the bar before jumping down from the table, grabbing a gobsmacked Robin by the hand, pulling her onto her feet and onto the dancefloor where Azul began to whirl and sway in tact with his at first unwilling partner, which soon began to change though as her small smile cracked into resounding laughter as well, fully entering into the bars party, singing and laughing along with the rest of the happy crowd.

Azul meanwhile was having the time of his life. Besides battling and sailing, his only interests, he for the first time experienced what a party was like. And for his baptism it was one hell of a party!

And so they danced and danced, danced some more, occasionally drowning themselves in beer and rum, or stuffed themselves with food, until the crowd after hours of singing and dancing seemed to finally have run out of fuel, slowly calming down and falling asleep just where they were partying only minutes before, arm in arm with people they may have battled with instead, if the party hadn't happened, and thus bringing a calm peace for the first time in many years to the small island of Jaya.