Hello again. I got quite a bit done this weekend and hope that you are going to enjoy my writing.
This time will have some of the promised Red Hairs in it :)
A word on two of the mentioned characters: they can both be seen alongside Shanks during Marineford, sadly we have so far not been given their official names so I gave them some. For further notes on who is who and on how I chose their names please scroll down to the end-note.
Please revisit the General Warnings of the first chapter as I have done a little adjustment to them.

I do not own One Piece and I make no money writing this.

Reviews are always appreciated. On we go.

Chapter 2 - Trouble ahead

The silent whistling of the wind as it blew through the cave system the Red Hair Clan had claimed as their homestead a little over two years ago now, usually served to sooth even the most active members of the clan into a peaceful slumber. Luffy, however, still had trouble falling asleep. Something didn't feel right and try as he might he couldn't quite put his finger on what exactly it might be.

Both of his brothers were right there with him, just behind the curtains separating their individual quarters, so there was no reason to worry about them and he had made a point of talking to Lady Banchina in the early hours of the night. As withdrawn as she was since Usopp had left the clan two centuries ago she always seemed to know when someone was either in trouble or simply not feeling well. It had been a nice talk, as always, and it had yielded all the information he needed: Zoro was coming along nicely in his studies as were Vivi and Kaya, Master Benn had successfully kept Rockstar and Clan head Shanks alive after angering the local witch-community and Master Yasopp had taken a bunch of the others out for hunting – animals not humans, thank you very much!
– Oh and apparently Chopper was in desperate need of shearing, winter was long gone and the poor Weredeer was starting to overheat due to all that thick fur.

So if everything was going as usual why was he feeling so off? – The sound of rushed footsteps had him sitting up and turning around, with a too loud whoosh the curtain separating his personal quarters from the rest of the open cave system was pushed to the side revealing a very dishevelled looking Kaya.

"What is it?" he started not wanting to waste time. Kaya looking this out of it usually meant nothing good. The last time he had seen her like this was when he had found out that his friend Zoro had gotten turned against his will.

"Have you seen Sanji?" her voice was strained. He shook his head "No I haven't. Shouldn't he be with Zoro? You know, learning how this entire vampire-business works?"

The blond looked as though her worst fear had come true. "This is bad. You are right, he should have been taking classes but he hasn't. And no one has seen him since yesterday's dawn."

Now the eerie feeling he had had the whole time grew tenfold. "That can't be right. Someone should have seen him at first-meal." The look on his friend's face told him that that hadn't happened either. "What do we do now?"

Kaya bit her lip. "Master Benn has already sent out the Guards. Anyone that's not a fully trained Guard is forbidden to go out until Sanji is found."

Luffy nodded his head; he had long ago learned not to disobey the clan-leaders. "Think he just forgot the time?" That earned him a very un-ladylike snort from his friend "The sun is high in the sky, Luffy. He has to be blind to miss this cue."

He felt himself sigh and turned his head slightly to the left to stare at his straw hat, a gift from Shanks. "Why don't you sit down? You don't look too well." The black-haired vampire patted the spot right next to him in invitation.

Not too much later he felt the bedding on his right side dip down a little and he turned away from his hat to look at his friend. Her hands were folded in her lap and she stared at the ground. He waited for her to speak.

"I'm scared Luffy. After the attack on Kyoko and Hanna two years ago..." Luffy remembered that night as though it was just yesterday. It had been by no means his first encounter with vampire-hunters but it had been the first time they had actually lost clan-members during one such an encounter.

"The people around here are afraid of us. Really, really afraid. What if they decided that enough is enough?"

Luffy could feel the muscles in his jaw work. It was a possibility, but... "It doesn't need to be like that Kaya. I mean you can smell those humans like ten miles against the wind. They take precautions against us. So as long as we leave them be we might be able to live alongside them without having to be afraid ourselves." He tried to give her an encouraging smile, one he himself didn't feel.

Her own smile was faint. "Perhaps you are right. It's just... I feel like we are in for trouble. A lot of trouble."

By the ancient vampires he felt the same, but hope was always the last thing to die. "Look Kaya, I know that feeling but..."

The sound of both hurried hoof- and footsteps interrupted the black-haired vampire and both he and Kaya lifted their heads up in time to see Vivi and Chopper enter the youth's quarters at a frantic pace. Their faces showed nothing but worry.

"Luffy it's Sanji" the little Weredeer began only to end his sentence abruptly as though he had forgotten how to speak. Vivi quickly took over "Rondo and Bacalao just dragged him back through the entrance. He is bleeding badly!"

That was when Chopper found his voice again "His eyes. That's where he is hurt! And from what we gathered when Rondo and Bacalao came back it was not vampire-hunters!" Vivi nodded in affirmation.

Luffy frowned, his hands clenched. Next to him Kaya had covered her mouth with her hands. He nodded his head. "Ok. Vivi, Chopper calm down and keep Kaya company. I'm going to check this out." He stood and made his way out of his room, faintly registering Chopper and Vivi sitting down with Kaya when he let the curtain fall closed behind him.

Making his way towards the main gathering area, his own footsteps rung way too loud in his ears. If Sanji had not been attacked by vampire-hunters then what had it been? There wasn't much in this area that could potentially be dangerous even for untrained or inexperienced vampires like his blond friend. The witches tended to make a massive production out of it every time they thought one of the other supernatural creatures needed to be punished by them. Drama queens, the lot of them.

They did have a couple of Werecats running around and while those tended to attempt to claw their opponents eyes out they also made a point of not getting anywhere near vampires. Something about not being able to stand their smell... he really should have paid more attention to Lady Banchina when she explained why most werebeasts were loath to be around vampires and witches.

It was most decidedly not Werewolves. Luffy had been the witness of one such an attack when he was just a fledgling and he knew without a doubt that Sanji would be dead right now had his attacker been a Werewolf.

And that left him with one option he really, really hated: another vampire.

The murmuring of other clan-members greeted him well before he could see them and it grew louder the closer he got. At the back of the group he could see Zoro. The green-haired vampire's broad back was tense. Not good.

"Zoro." He greeted his friend softly. The other turned to look at him and grunted his own greeting. "How's it looking?" "Not good. I could hear Rondo say that they caught the tail-end of a fight between Sanji and another vampire." Zoro held a hand up to stop his friend from speaking. "There's more: Bacalao said that the vampire's neck and face were blood-smeared."

The older vampire felt his breath quickening. This was bad. "Is not all." Rockstar jumped in, looking more serious than ever. "I heard Rondo telling Benn that the other vampire was in kill-or-be-killed-mode." Luffy swallowed thickly. "And that the other vampire wasn't reacting at all to their presence. The guy only fled when Sanji was down on the ground clutching his eyes."

Brook's sombre voice then picked up, making the three vampires flinch not having heard the living skeleton's approach. "I stood next to the councils-chamber for the past few minutes. Master Bacalao spoke of the lack of smell of a clan-outsider and wounds too fresh to have happened earlier than last night." He paused, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to say. "Master Bacalao spoke of the Thrall being in the air."

Luffy's breath hitched and his eyes hardened. "No." He spoke firmly, confident in his knowledge of his blond friend. "That's not like Sanji. He would never do something that cruel to anyone. Never."

Brook inclined his head. "But that is exactly what has everyone on high alert Master Luffy. We all know Sanji. We all know that the Thrall is the very kind of cruelty he would never commit against anyone. He is not the type to do something like that. But we all know who is."

Ice imbedded itself into Luffy's spine. "You don't mean..." the skeleton's black afro bobbed a little as it's owner nodded his head in confirmation. "Yes, the Puppeteer that turned Sanji might still be pulling strings."

Next to him Zoro tensed, his voice rough "But we ended the stupid bird's influence on the idiot cook months ago." Rockstar crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You know they also say that the Thrall only truly ends when the one that initiated it is dead."

A dangerous glint entered Luffy's eyes as he stared at Rockstar. "You think we might have to go bird-hunting then?" The red-head gave the older vampire a crooked grin "If we have to we probably should inform Law and his cronies, if I remember correctly he does have a bone to pick with the oversized bastard."

At that Zoro, too, started grinning "Yeah, if we want him to join our clan we have to play nice and share." Luffy pouted just slightly "Ok. But only our Clan and Torao." He may have wanted to murder the Flamingo by himself for everything he had ever done to both of his friends, but he guessed he could share with Torao.

The four of them were silent for a moment, the clan's quiet murmuring now soothing their nerves instead of straining them. They could hear Lady Banchina hushing some of the clan's younger members. Master Yasopp quite probably with the other clan-elders trying to determine what exactly had happened.

"So, what do we do now?" the green-haired vampire carefully rested his elbow on the swords at his hip. Luffy turned his head and looked to where their friend had to be. "We wait for Master Shanks' decision on this. He will defend his clan, we all know that, but when and how are his to decide. In the meantime we will stop Ace from getting himself murdered once he hears about this. You know how he is."

Rockstar snorted "Yeah, no joke. We might want to get Sabo in on the job, too. He is the more level-headed one of your brothers. And he can match Ace strength wise."

Luffy gave a short nod. "I will go talk to him. Ace was asleep earlier but since the Guards went out Sabo might still be awake. Zoro, Brook – you two keep me posted on what's going on. Rockstar do me a favour and make sure the Newfangs actually obey orders. If this really is Mingo's doing they should be kept out of the resulting fight. The stupid bird is a class 1 with tons of experience... And he is using the Thrall." – "No problem, will do. Anything for the clan."

Brook hummed as he watched his friend's retreating back. "In other words: this is going to be ugly."

And done for today, I hope you liked it.
Now for the two Red Hair Pirates I gave names to:

Rondo: Is the crew-member with the long blond hair wearing a hat featuring the crew's Jolly Roger, sunglasses and white gloves. His name is, as far as I could research, the Austrian term for a tack manoeuvre and used in inland navigation.

Bacalao: Is the blond crew-member with his hair tied into a ponytail. During Marineford he was wearing dark clothes and carried a sword. I named him after the phantom island Bacalao (or Terra do Bacalhau). It is also the spanish word for "cod" or "stockfish".

Please give me your thoughts.

BlueNightOwl out.