The tyrant Shichibukai, Bartholomew Kuma towered over Dusty, palm outstretched towards the kitsune girl. Judging by what had just happened to some of her other nakama, she knew exactly what he was going to do to her. "Where would you like to go?" The warlord asked in his light tone as he slowly stepped towards her in his gradual walk. She was unable to run, cornered and exhausted, as if it would make much difference against this powerful Shichibukai.

"I don't wanna go anywhere you bear-eared freak!" Dusty stuck her tongue out at the large man, remaining defiant despite her situation.

A gust of wind suddenly blew between the Shichibukai and fox pirate. As the dust cleared, both parties could see the blue-clad figure now standing in their way. "Hey bear-ossan, keep your paws off her." The speedy swordsman grinned.

Devon groaned. "I get it, paws, he's a bear-man, so funny Macleod, as we're about to be killed!" Devon shouted.

"Shut up, you're ruining my moment!" DJ shouted back.

"D-DJ-kun…" Dusty's eyes widened as she kept behind her samurai nakama.

"Don't worry Dusty-chan, I'll protect you with my life." DJ gave a thumbs-up and smiled before turning back to the lumbering warlord. "Yo, the freak in the bear hat, I have a deal for ya."

"Speak" Kuma nodded.

"If I go without a fight, will you leave Dusty-chan alone? Don't hurt her or I don't care where you send me, I'm coming back and kicking your paw-printed ass."

"She will not be harmed." Kuma nodded.

"DJ-kun don't!" Dusty cried, trying to stand but finding it no use. "You're the only one of us fast enough to keep up with this guy, you're the only one with even a small chance to get away!" She shouted. "Just leave me and run!"

"I can't do that Dusty-chan." The brunette swordsman smiled. "I can't leave you. But I promise, no matter where I am, I will find you. The entire world can't separate me from you any longer than necessary."

"DJ-kun…." Dusty sobbed, tears running down her face. "I know… and I'll find you as well…"

"That's good to hear." He nodded, turning back to Kuma. "Alright, I'm ready."

"It seems that Straw-Hat is not the only one with good nakama." Kuma watched him and lifted a pawed hand. "Where would you like to go?"

DJ laughed and shook his head. "You don't get it, I'm already… exactly where I want to be." He turned back to Dusty. "There's no other place I would rather be."

"Admirable…" Kuma placed a paw on his head.

DJ smirked and kept his word, not lifting a finger to stop him. "Dusty-chan, will you m-" And with that the pirate disappeared thanks to the power of the Shichibukai.

DJ soared through the air for three days and three nights in a paw-shaped bubble of air, landing in a similarly shaped crater, unconscious from fatigue and stress. He woke up in a bed a few hours later. "M-Marry me…?" He finished his sentence as if nothing had happened.

"Whoa kid, you're kind of cute and all but I'm not into guys and I'm pretty sure that's illegal somewhere." An elderly man sat above the pirate and looked down on the bed he was in.

The brunette shot up like a bullet and screamed with surprise, holding the scream for a surprisingly long time as he looked from the man and looked around the room, finally stopping to catch his breath. "W-Where am I? Where's my crew? Where's my sword?"

"In order, the middle part of Marathon Island, I have no fucking clue, and it's on that chair over there." The old man sighed as he stood up and went over to the chair with Raikiri on it and placing it on the bed where his feet were. "My name is Diodorus, you can call me Dio."

"Marathon Island…? That's right, Kuma pushed me away." The swordsman looked down, leaning back on the headboard of the bed.

"Kuma? As in Bartholomew Kuma, the Royal Shichibukai? The Tyrant? You met him? Why would he let you live?"

"Good question…" DJ gave a downcast stare. "Anyway, where exactly is this island?" He looked up curiously at Dio.

The old man sat back down, still looking curiously at the young boy. "Marathon Island is actually a chain of three small land masses in a slightly curved line connected by thin land bridges located in the West Blue."

"WEST BLUE! I was in the middle of the Grand Line!" DJ shouted, coughing a bit, weak from hunger.

"Here, eat a bit." Dio handed the boy a large plate of meat and watched him readily devour it, high metabolism from the speed-speed fruit in full effect. "You must have been traveling a long time if you came all the way from there. I found you in a weird paw-shaped crater not far off our shore."

After he finished, DJ described his encounter with the Shichibukai Bartholomew Kuma and his crew as well as the separation and various details to fill him in.

"It'll probably be a while before you get back to your crew." Dio took note of the boy's depressed expression and stood, smirking as he tossed him a blue jacket and shirt along with a pair of jeans. "Get dressed, do you like races?"

"You see, every year we have a grand series of races to determine the fastest person in the West Blue. It's based on our legend of a man who ran across the entire chain of three islands in two hours during a war to ask for help from the town on the opposite side, then ran back despite being denied to support his people. By the time he returned the people on the third island had won the battle and he ran all the way back to his home village, whispered 'We have won' and collapsed." Dio explained.

"Wow, I'm pretty fast myself, I want to race that guy!" DJ shouted at the old man excitedly.

"Well… he had a heart attack shortly after collapsing and died, so that will be kind of impossible… but to honor that fear we have a race every year. There's a 200 million belli prize for the victor."

"200 million eh? I'm not much for money but Niri-chan would be happy if I were able to bring that back with me." He scratched his chin and daydreamed.

"Niri-chwaaaan~! I brought you money!" DJ floated in, hearts surrounding him as he carried a huge sack with a belli sign on it onto the ship.

"Oh DJ-kun~! Hugs forever!" Niri squealed as she hugged him tightly.

DJ blushed softly, still rubbing his chin in thought as he faded back to reality. "I DO enjoy hugs…" He giggled like a schoolgirl.

"What the heck are you thinking about?" Dio chuckled, glad to see the boy was no longer depressed by his separation. "I guess it's normal for kids to be thinking about that kind of thing…" He shook his head.

"HEY! It's nothing like that!" DJ facefaulted, a huge blush on his face as he prodded the old man lightly with his foot.

"Anyway, hurry up. We're going to miss the registration speech." Dio pushed the musician along until they met a large crowd in front of an ornate stage in the courtyard. "Good, it's just about to start."

"And now to speak for the opening of the registration for Marathon's Annual Marathon Races, here's eight-time winner, Marathon's own Jet "The Hawk" Takabi!" Who DJ presumed to be the mayor stepped aside as a green-haired boy who appeared to be in his early twenties with spiked green hair and a long curved nose shaped like a beak stepped up to the microphone snail.

"Welcome to the races, participants from far and wide." Jet said with disturbing serenity. "As you register, I urge you to come forward. Pirate or Marine, man or woman, human or fishman, noble or peasant, pure blood or mixed. I don't care who you are, AS LONG AS YOU'RE FAST!" Jet raised his voice, blue eyes sparkling with fierce determination as he scanned the crowd, briefly locking on DJ before going back to his seat with the crowd applauding loudly.

"Dio-san…" A slow grin crept over DJ's face and spread wide. "I am definitely registering for this race."

Dio seemed more than happy to support DJ as he signed up for the races to be held on the next day. "Since you're going into the races anyway, would you mind wearing my logo?" The old man grinned as they got back to his house.

"So that's why you seem so happy about all this, you want to be my sponsor, did you have that planned all along?" DJ looked down with a cynical glance as he ate a dango the two had stopped to get off the skewer.

"Well you did say you ate the Speed-Speed fruit in your description of your crew and if you managed to survive going against Kuma you must be the fastest thing alive!" Dio chuckled. "Besides, business has been slow lately and this could be just the thing to help out."

"What exactly does your business do again?" The speedy swordsman looked down as he took another bite.

Dio slammed his hand on the sign outside his house. "I am owner of Tengu Shoes! I, Diodorus Tengu am the best shoemaker in all of the West Blue! If you wear my logo on the back of your jacket during the races and do well, I'll give you the best pair of sandals you've ever had, free of charge!"

DJ smiled, finishing his tango and sticking the skewer in his mouth with a grin, reaching out to shake the old man's hand. "You've got a deal ossan!"

"Good, now get some sleep, you've got to rest up for tomorrow!" Dio chuckled as he headed off to work on the sandals.

"Awww, but I'm too excited to sleep!" DJ pouted.

The boy awoke when the sky was dark, he wasn't sure of the time as he blindly groped his way towards the light of a candle through a cracked door. "Damn!" He heard the curse as he opened the door a crack, spying Dio hard at work so late at night, his elderly hands shaking and bruised as he carefully threaded the straw rope. He wiped the blood from the hand where he poked himself with a needle and sighed, trying to steady himself. The old man looked at a picture of himself with an elderly woman, smiling softly. "Don't worry Emily, no matter how much my hands shake, I'll finish these shoes, and they'll be my best work yet. That boy is our last hope. This shop was our dream, and I won't let that dream die just because you did…" He gave a tear-filled smile as he set the picture down and carefully went back to threading the rope, hands as steady as a sniper's.

"Wouldn't the world be a wonderful place if everyone followed their dreams? If everyone worked so hard to make themselves and other's happy through dreams, the world would be a paradise, don't you think, eh big brother? That's my dream!" Sirena's words echoed in DJ's head as he watched Dio work.

The swordsman slowly turned away from the door with a soft smile, laying back in the bed and drifting off to sleep. "Don't worry ossan, I won't let your dream die either."

"Wake up! Wake up!" DJ was jostled by Dio as morning came. The musician yawned softly as he sat up, putting on his blue t-shirt and blue running pants. "I worked all night, but I finally finished them." Dio grinned, holding up a pair of neatly crafted waraji sandals.

As DJ took them out of Dio's hands, he saw the old man's severely worn and bruised hands, shaking lightly as he lowered them, his bag-filled eyes exhausted as he looked at the boy wearily. "These really are the best in the world." He smirked to himself as he put them on. His eyes widened as he hopped around a bit, doing a quick dash to the other side of the house in an instant. "Wow! These waraji are amazing! My feet feel so light!"

"They're made of a special kind of straw found in the New World and sewn together by an ancient family secret weaving technique. Your feet should actually be lighter than if you were wearing nothing at all." Dio smirked proudly.

DJ grinned as he hopped from one foot to the other, a slight jump in his step as he bounced along. "Are we ready to go? The preliminaries are going to start soon."

"One more thing." Dio had folded up the blue jacket he had given the boy the day before, only now revealing he had stitched into it an emblem similar to the sign outside. A large bird-like creature with a long nose spreading its wings across the shoulders of the back with the word 'TENGU' in big red letters in the middle.

"Thanks old man, I'll wear it with pride." He chuckled. He was literally carrying the man's hopes on his shoulders. He put the jacket on and urged the old man with him. "Here, get on my back!" The swordsman laughed and lifted the old shoemaker carefully onto his back.

"Now hold on tight!" Like a bullet the speedy swordsman took off down the road and within minutes they were at the stadium where the races were going to be held. "Wow, I feel even faster with these shoes on!" He grinned.

The shoemaker seemed astonished that they were there so fast but at the same time he appeared too frazzled from the high-speed ride to care. "W-Warn me next time you're gonna do that, will ya?" He shakily got off the boy's back and yawned heavily, clearly fatigued from the night before.

DJ smirked as he headed towards the stadium entrance. "Ossan, why don't you take a nap for the preliminaries? You'll see me in the finals, I guarantee it." He gave Dio a thumbs up and a huge grin as he raced to start the competition.