A/N: …I can't get this tune out of my head. It's my happy song for the moment. Listening to it while typing or doing other things lifts my mood and somehow gives me inspiration. Watching Law run on a treadmill in his underwear is an added bonus.
www. youtube watch?v=PbAGsO0wgMw&feature=BFa&list=PL1043A2E5C528A41B

Random Trivia: The 'Calibri' from 'Calibri island' mentioned in the last chapter is the default font I get when I open Word or a new letter in Outlook Express while using the office computer. Since I have no idea what the islands nearest to Punk Hazard are called, I just took that and ran with it. :P

Random Trivia 2: The color of Dumbledore's robes and hat is greenish-brown, patterned with flickering stars switching between the colors neon orange and urple.
Greenish-brown as in this kind of shade, if you're wondering: www. marlin. ac. uk/ shore_thing/ images/ oyster%

Disclaimer: See the first chapter. And okay, so maybe I won't be getting that figurine any time soon…apparently it was fan-made, and thus not for sale. Godsdamnit.

"Just what did you do back there at the gates?" Chopper yelled as Law ran down the empty corridor, the reindeer tucked under an arm. Behind him, shouts and curses could be heard and jets of variously colored lights shot past them.

"Like I said before, I had simply removed a pest!" Law snapped as he rounded a corner, his shoes momentarily skidding across the smooth stone tiles of the floor, and continued running. Whatever that Dumbledore was, he was dangerous. A sudden burst of the aura around him had sent Law flying backwards into a bookcase with tremendous force, knocking the breath out of him. He had feigned unconsciousness, and used the moment when the old man was walking towards him with the stick aimed at him to expand a small Room before switching places with a stack of books beside the desk, just barely managing to dodge a bolt of light from the stick. He had no intention of finding out what the light would've done had it struck him. He then grabbed a shocked Chopper before making a quick slash at the short man at the door with his sword, who yelped and leapt to the side, clearing the doorway, and ran the hell out of the office.

Several startled students had to dive out of the way as Law barreled down the hall, not really caring where he was running, as long as he was getting away from Dumbledore. Soon he had shaken off the pursuers, having Room'd a few times and switching with objects from different floors where the headmaster would have to take some time to find them, and was now leaning against an open window beside a stairway, catching his breath. Judging from the view, he had managed to find his way up one of the castle's towers.

A booming voice suddenly resonated within the castle, causing Chopper to jump.

"All students are to immediately return to your common rooms. Prefects, make sure that all students have returned, and maintain order. Do NOT leave your dormitory."

As the voice faded, Law could hear his ears ringing. "…What a monster." He muttered, rubbing his abused ears. His back also ached badly from where it had hit the bookshelf and then the wall behind it. Beside him, Chopper was also nursing his sore ears, having a keener sense of hearing than the human.

A clatter from the staircase alerted the two, and they turned to see a young, teenage girl carrying a giant book bag halting mid-way on the stairs, staring at them with an expression of surprise and alarm on her face. She appeared to be one of the students inside the castle, heeding the earlier announcement and was making her way down. "You…I saw you back in the Great Hall! Who are you? That announcement earlier…did that have something to do with you? You don't look like a Death Eater…and Professor Dumbledore did let you follow after him outside…but then why else would he make an announcement like that?" The string of words flew from her mouth without her pausing to catch her breath even once, the second half almost as though she were talking to herself.

"Trafalgar Law. Yes. And no, I am not a Death Eater." Not that he had any idea what a Death Eater was.

The girl frowned, not expecting the strange man to actually answer her questions, nor the blunt way he responded. Then she noticed the small creature peering out from behind his shoulders nervously. "What is that?" She was clutching the rails on the stairs tightly with one hand while the other had disappeared into the book bag of hers, her eyes staring suspiciously at the two.

"Reindeer. And if you pull that stick out and start shooting lights at me, I'll kill you."

The color drained from her face and she eyed the sheathed sword held loosely in Law's grip warily. "What do you want from us? Why are you here?" She demanded, while edging one of her foot onto the step behind her, her pose tense.

"Directions and a way to leave this place. We got here by accident." Law leaned back against the ledge of the window, deeming the girl as low-threat, for now. "If you know of a way to travel between worlds, I would be happy to know."

"Worlds? What kind of worlds?" The girl frowned again. "I mean, there are theories, but…"

"So I've heard." Law said drily. "Happen to have any theories that are available for actual practice?"

"…The Veil…" She whispered, eyes glazing over for a moment, before she shook herself, eyes narrowing at the pair before her. "How do I know you're telling the truth? That you're not looking to harm us?"

"If I wanted to harm you, you wouldn't be standing there talking."

"Please, we really need to get back to Punk Hazard, there's no telling how those kids will manage if left in their current state!" Chopper also spoke up from his perch on Law's shoulder, while at the same time nudging the human to make him stop intimidating the girl, causing his hat to tip forwards and covering his eyes, to the Shichibukai's annoyance. He pushed his hat back up and glared at the reindeer, who, again, appeared completely oblivious to his darkening mood.

The girl's eyes flicked back and forth between them, unsure. Chopper was about to open his mouth to persuade her more when a hand abruptly clamped down on top of him as Law ducked, three jets of light flying over his head and out the window.

"Damn, that didn't take them long…" Law growled as he then leapt out of the way when more of the lights followed. He had thought it would take them longer to locate him in a castle as large as this. "Room!"

The bluish dome expanded and enveloped the area and all the occupants within range. The old man appeared to have gathered reinforcements, with both the short man from earlier, the severe-looking woman from the Great Hall, and a man that had oily-looking hair hanging over his face with a hooked nose. The men all had their sticks trained on him and Chopper, while the woman waved hers around in a semi-circular motion while muttering something under her breath and then jabbed it towards a suit of armor standing near the wall. The suit of armor clanged to life and drew its sword before charging towards him.

"As much as I'd like to cut you all up and examine these curious powers of yours…" He said, easily slicing the armor into three pieces with a few flicks of his sword, and then with a horizontal slash, severed all four adult's torsos from their waist with Shambles as the girl screamed in horror, all the while maneuvering himself towards her subtly, "…It's time for us to take our leave."

He leapt onto the stairs and grabbed the girl around the waist with his left arm while she was still frozen in shock, just as a jet of orange-red light flew from the end of the greasy-haired man's stick, who had propped himself upright despite the lower half of his body and half of his left arm lying several yards away, a vicious snarl on his face. The light struck the wall near the window where Law had been a moment ago, and the ensuing explosion knocked everyone backwards, with the girl lying on top of him, stunned, and Chopper's hooves yanking on his ears from the back of his head while the reindeer screamed into them. The adults along with their various body parts had also skidded back several yards down the corridor, and he saw the stern woman throw the greasy-haired man a dirty look.

Law scrambled onto his feet, gritting his teeth and ignoring the growing pain on his back, keeping his grip on the girl who was trying to gather her bearings. Ignoring the ringing in his ears while the Strawhat's doctor continued to scream into them, he jumped out the hole in the wall out the castle, deactivating his Room at the same time. Now the girl's screams joined Chopper's, whose volume had doubled, and Law briefly considered removing both their vocal cords for the sake of his sanity as they free-fell, eyes scanning the area for a suitable object…right…there!

Quickly, he used his mouth to bite down on his sword in order to free his right hand, opening a new Room that expanded downwards to the castle grounds, and, at the last moment, switched places with a tree from the row of trees decorating the length of the paved stone grounds below. He and his two baggage appeared from the hole where the tree previously stood, while the unfortunate plant thumped down hard into the stone in place of them, scattering leaves and broken branches everywhere.

"Will the two of you shut up!" He yelled as he got up and continued to move, at a slower pace than a run, but still as quickly as he could without overexerting himself. The girl gave one last little shriek and fell silent, trembling, while Chopper was saying, "We almost died, we almost died, we almost died…" over and over. Still into his ears. Fortunately his hearing was still rather numbed at the moment from the previous screaming, so he ignored the reindeer's babbling and made his way towards the forest, where he intended to hide and figure out the next course of his actions and get some answers out from the frightened girl clutched under his arm.

When they reached the edge of the forest and Law made to move further inside, the girl suddenly spoke up, her voice small but steady. "We shouldn't go into the Forbidden Forest, there are all sorts of dangerous creatures inside."

"More dangerous than the four back inside the castle?" Law muttered, not slowing his pace.

At his words, the girl drew a great shaky breath and sniffled. "I can't believe you killed them." She whispered and her voice cracked towards the end of the sentence.

"I haven't killed anyone. Aside from that Arcus Filth man. In case you haven't noticed, they most certainly were not dead when one of them decided to blast a hole into the wall with just the upper half of his body."

"You cut them in half! And it's Argus Filch."

"They'll be fine after they reattach themselves. Shambles does not kill."

"But-"

"Trafalgar's right," Chopper said, having calmed down by then, "That's what he did to the samurai back on Punk Hazard, his body was all cut up into pieces but he's still alive and well…er, as well as a person who is still missing his upper torso could be, anyway. Besides, there hadn't been any blood coming out from them, right?"

The girl gaped at them, falling silent. Chopper then rounded on Law. "Trafalgar, did you really kill that man back at the door?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"He was rude." A pause. "And he had bad hygiene."

Chopper stared. "Bad…hygiene?"

"His face looked as though it had not been washed in over a month. His hair was coated in mud and grime. There are multiple stains all over his clothes, old and new. And the state of his fingernails is simply inexcusable. I will not even begin with the topic of that atrocious stench coming from his mouth…" His voice trailed off when he noticed the strange expression on the reindeer's face. "…What?"

"…Trafalgar, are you mysophobic?" Chopper asked seriously.

Law froze in mid-step. "No!"

"Well, you seem to have picked up quite an amount of details on the man's state of hygiene considering how dark it was at the time and you've only been talking to him for-"

"I am not mysophobic!" He snapped and stalked on, refusing to engage himself in any more conversation with the caribou. As a doctor, he dealt with bloody wounds all the time! Not to mention how often he himself was coated in the substance whenever a blood vessel or two was popped. If that wasn't messy, he didn't know what was. He was most certainly not a mysophobe.

Chopper was still giving him that 'look' that said, 'Reeeeally…?' when they arrived at a clearing where the stars could be seen up in the night sky. Silently fuming, Law dropped the girl unceremoniously onto the ground.

"Ow! You're rude, you know that?" The girl glared, rubbing her side where she had landed on and clutching her book bag tightly.

Law ignored her. "Room. Scan."

"What- Hey!" She exclaimed, scrambling onto her feet when she saw her wand suddenly appear in the man's hand, "Give me my wand back!"

The pirate twirled the piece of wood between his fingers. "So these sticks are called wands, hm? You people use them to fire lights at others?"

She scowled, but appeared to be too wary of him to attempt snatching her wand back. "Yes, and those were spells, not lights."

"How?" He asked.

"What?"

"How do you fire spells with a wand? The people back in the castle appeared to be casting them after saying something."

She appeared nonplussed for a moment. "…You really are from another world, aren't you?"

"I believe you already know the answer to that, Miss."

"And you won't let me go."

"No."

"Why?"

"Information. I require information. Also, you mentioned a 'Veil' earlier when I asked you about travelling between worlds." She was also a convenient hostage, if the old man and his troupe of angry light- no, spell-shooting followers should manage to find them again.

"What makes you think I'll be able to help you? Or help you at all?" She glared, crossing her hands over her chest.

"Because I can make your life very unpleasant if you refuse." Law deadpanned.

"Trafalgar!" Chopper nudged an elbow against Law's cheek. "Stop antagonizing her!" He turned to the girl, whose eyes were once again flickering between them, as though wondering how the two ended up together. "Miss, sorry about that, this guy here really isn't known for his, er, hospitality."

"You don't say…"

"Anyway, I'm Tony Tony Chopper, and this here is Trafalgar Law. We're both doctors of our crew." The reindeer introduced himself and Law, whose hat currently obscured most of his expression aside from the mouth that was set in a frown. "We got separated from our crew and somehow appeared here, and we really need to get back to Punk Hazard before it's too late! So would you please help us? You look like you're smart, so you can help us, right?"

She looked at the two again, and couldn't imagine anyone appearing any less like doctors than the two before her did. The man was carrying a giant sword, and she could see what looked like tattoos on the back of both his hands, as well as the gold earrings and the frightening aura he gave off. Not to mention how he had fought earlier back in the castle. What kind of a doctor would know and be able to fight like that? And the other one was a hat-wearing reindeer, and a talking one at that, for Merlin's sake!

Tony Tony Chopper did appear to be very earnest, however, and could even be called 'cute' if she dare admitted to herself. But the other man…

"If I help you, will you let me go?"

"Of course! Er, I mean…you will let her go afterward, won't you, Trafalgar?" The reindeer poked Law.

"She will be free to do as she pleases when we return to Punk Hazard." His voice was level, but she could see him gritting his teeth when Chopper poked him in the cheek again.

She considered her options. On one hand, she could refuse to help them, as this Trafalgar man was obviously dangerous and cared little of the lives of others, and she hardly wanted to assist what could be a deranged psychopathic criminal. But on the other hand, if she refused, she had no doubt that he would be able to make true on his words of making her life 'unpleasant'. No one knew where they were right now, and even if they followed their footsteps to the forest, the forest grounds were devoid of snow and would make tracking harder, considering how far they had traveled into it. There would be no one to help her. She would have to comply, for now, if only for her own safety.

"…Fine, I'll help you. But," she firmly said, when Chopper let out a whoop, "you have to promise not to harm me."

"You will not be harmed as long as you cooperate." Law said, "We will rest here for tonight." He lifted Chopper off his shoulders and set him down onto the ground before moving to a tree, presumably to settle down against it.

"What? Here? But…the forest isn't safe!" She sputtered. The man might be able to fend off whatever creatures that dwell within the forest with that sword of his, but to spend the entire night?

"Why isn't the forest safe?" Chopper asked curiously. "I mean, I kind of gathered that from the name, but…"

"There are a lot of dangerous creatures living in the forest, acromantulas, wild werewolves, the centaurs if you anger them…"

"Centaurs?" Chopper glanced at Law. "They actually exist? I thought the ones that did were only because of Trafalgar's-"

"Nothing will harm us, as long as I am awake." Law spoke with a note of finality, having seated himself against the roots of a giant tree, cradling his sword in an arm with his head lowered, face half buried behind the coat collar. "I will keep watch for the night. The two of you better get some rest now."

He doubted he would be able to sleep, anyway. Dumbledore's tune was playing.

A/N: Whoaaa...what's this new thing added to the top of all the stories? Neat.