A Good Ship

by Xipholynx

Reincarnation doesn't always land you in the same type of body as your previous one. Luffy sets sail from his home in a living ship and goes on a journey to "to gather a crew, find the greatest treasures, have the greatest adventures and to become King of the Pirates." AU

4. Bring Your Child To Work Day

A Good Ship

Xipholynx

Summary: Reincarnation doesn't always land you in the same type of body as your previous one. Luffy sets sail from his home in a living ship and goes on a journey to "to gather a crew, find the greatest treasures, have the greatest adventures and to become King of the Pirates." AU

Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. of One Piece are the property of Oda Eiichiro. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Chapter Four: Bring Your Child To Work Day

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. - Helen Keller

Zoro woke up with the feeling of sun shining on his face, the smell of salted fish-and-chicken-egg soup and the distant sound of Luffy whooping and cheering with excitement. He noticed immediately that Berry-Berry was napping in the crook of his arm (which had become her favorite napping spot on the ship) Mingle-Mango was making a racket in the coop and that Ann and Balloon were nowhere to be seen on the small boat. Zoro carefully moved the bird on him over to sleep in the coop by her sister before he stretched his arms over his head and looked over to where Luffy was making a racket.

Zoro blinked a few more times to make sure he was awake because it seemed that Luffy was holding the reigns and riding bareback on a purple shark with lighter purple polka dots.

"What's he doing?"

"Luffy wanted to play while we're stopped for me to go fishing again," Dawn's voice came up from the deck to which Zoro nodded. He'd gotten used to the disembodied vessel's voice within the first day of sailing with his new crew. It had been ten days since they left Shells Town and they had already stopped to fish four times and hadn't seen an island in all that time. According to Luffy they were just exploring on their way to the Grand Line - not lost.

Zoro had asked a day ago why a living ship couldn't even find an island and Dawn had explained simply that she wasn't a navigator - she was a ship and needed to get directions to get somewhere just like anybody else in the world.

"Ann took Balloon up to see if she could spot an island nearby where we can stock up on some fresh water and get some red meat for Luffy since he was watching Balloon and drooling while I was making the soup earlier."

After hearing this Zoro looked up into the sky and about 4000 meters up he spotted the black and white form of Balloon who was carrying Ann on his back as usual. Zoro appreciated that the little ship kept him up to date with what was going on without having to ask and went over to the wooden pot that Dawn somehow could keep heated up without a fire and ladled some soup into a newly grown wooden bowl to have some breakfast. Food was food after all, even if this was the only thing they had eaten for the last five days. The soup was as noticeably shimmery from the weird fancy eggs the chickens laid as usual and hearing that it had been Dawn who made the soup this time instead of Ann (since Luffy made everything either burnt or raw and Zoro could only burn rice or ferment it into sake nearly instantaneously somehow) Zoro decided to be very careful while he ate.

He had nearly cracked a tooth on a gold nugget Dawn had left in her last batch for "flavor" and he didn't want to go through that again. The ship didn't seem to understand that its tastes and the crew's tastes were a bit different from each other. He had just been lucky that he hadn't gotten eggshells like Ann or fishbones like Luffy (though Luffy did try to eat the bones anyway.)

Once Zoro finished eating his breakfast (gold nugget tucked into the inside of his haramaki for him to add to the crew's "treasure chest" which was just an old wooden box without a latch or lock at a later time) he heard a very unusual whistling noise that stopped when a large mortar landed in the water close to where Luffy had been riding the shark and exploded into a surprisingly large fountain of fiery fury.

At the same time as the surprise explosion the long, serpentine head of a sea monster that was wearing a kabuto helmet rose up out of the water and roared out an oddly glowing pink fireball attack directly towards Balloon and Ann up in the sky.

Dawn responded to the double attacks by trying to secure her current passengers but was knocked about in the explosion and ended up on a swell what washed them away from the attack in towards a smallish island that suddenly appeared as they got closer to its shore. (Zoro had just enough time to triumphantly think, 'I knew islands could appear and disappear! Take that, Johnny!') Dawn washed onto the beach on the artificially created tidal wave and landed with a heavy, painful crack.

"Yeouch!" Dawn yelped and felt the new crack in her hull widen when she shifted her lines and sails in order to try moving. With a touch of annoyance in her voice she announced, "I think I have a crack on my starboard side."

Zoro stood up from where he had fallen, sprawled on the deck and after looking around once asked, "Do I need to find you a ship doctor? There might be a town somewhere on this island since we're being attacked."

"I'll be fine. I just need to rest up here and eat some food and I'll have myself repaired by tomorrow." Dawn said as her figurehead grinned with clenched teeth, "I can only control two lures at once though and the shark one Luffy was playing with got him somewhere along the shore of this island before it broke down completely and I lost connection to it so he should be fine. I have my second lure still fishing so I can get food to me but I'll keep an eye out for Ann and Balloon in case they come by and make a new one to go along with you. We need to look for Luffy before he runs into too much trouble without any backup. I'll wait here and guard the treasure while I heal up my damage."

A small bird grew out of Dawn's mast and flew down to land on top of Zoro's head. He was already jogging down the beach and casually waved his hand back in response and decided already that a ship guarding itself was probably going to be the least weird thing about this little island adventure.

---

The only thing Luffy had been focusing his attention on before the sudden surprise explosion had been on how much fun it was playing water rodeo (one of the words Dawn had made up that he assumed meant 'playing rough with animals') with Dawn's newly improved shark shaped lurey. After the explosion he had nearly been boiled, drowned and was sent flying off the shark into the water and nearly instantly began to sink. The last thing he could remember clearly was watching a burnt and falling apart shark swimming towards him. He didn't feel the plant shark nudge him up out of the water and out onto the closest beach before he faded away completely but he wasn't worried. A captain went down with their ship and he knew his ship wouldn't sink yet. He had full confidence that Dawn would fish him out of the water before he actually drowned.

The shark lure fell apart and broke connection to Dawn completely almost as soon as Luffy was brought to shore. Its form now looked more like a mass of tangled burnt purple seaweed rather than its previous shark shape. Less than a minute later there arrived a pair of pirates armed with cutlasses and ready to loot. They looked clownishly comical with one that was tall and thin and the other short and fat instead.

"Looks like 'e drowned, don'tcha think?" the tall thin pirate asked as he nudged Luffy's motionless body with his foot.

The short and fat pirate expressed his disgust by covering his mouth and nose with his hand in case there was a bad smell coming from the supposed corpse and spoke with his voice obviously muffled, "Check him for valuables. He could have bullets or gold in his pockets, right?"

"Why don' you check 'im? I 'ad to check the last two guys we found." The tall one argued back.

"Because touching dead bodies is gross and you don't mind touching gross things like that." The fat pirate said, still feeling disgusted at the thought.

Right afterwards he felt something sharp jab suddenly into his backside and with a yelp he spun to look behind him. He looked left and right before slightly downwards and saw a knight shorter than himself who was pointing a sharpened spear at him.

"What the?- Oh, not you again. Get out of here you little brat or I really will kill you this time!" the pirate said as he shook his cutlass threateningly at the small knight.

"Give me back my dad you stupid pirates!" The small knight shouted as she stabbed her spear at the pirate again. The long reach of the spear caused the pirate to stumble back until he stuck his foot in the middle of Luffy's chest which (since he was made of rubber) simply caved in without resistance. This, rather than the angry child with the spear, caused the fat pirate to freak out and shout in disgust when a gob of water spurt out of Luffy's mouth and hit his backside.

"Ugh - disgusting! Look what mess you made me step in! I'll kill you! Help me Arry!"

Arry, the tall and thin pirate, loyally drew his own sword and the two pirates began chasing the small armored kid around the beach. The tall and short duo ran around shouting, threatening more violence and kicking sand onto Luffy as they ran around and over him in circles, the girl jumping over his body occasionally, but the pirates stepping all over him without any regard to respecting the dead.

Luffy suddenly sat up and loudly shouted, "It's so loud here! Stop stepping on me!"

The two pirates clung to each other in terror and screamed, "It's a zombie!"

"Really? Where?" Luffy asked in excitement as he looked around.

"It's you - you idiot!" the pair screamed angrily as they pointed their cutlasses accusingly at Luffy.

Luffy was disappointed, seeing a zombie would have been cool. "Oh. I'm not a zombie."

The short pirate shook his sword at Luffy and yelled, "I'm gonna kill you and take whatever's in your pockets because the boss said we could loot any bodies we find on the beach!"

Gearing up for a fight, Luffy began to cock his fist back but before he could let it loose someone else attacked the short pirate instead - a small person in armor stabbed a sharpened spear at the pirate and shouted, "Stop ignoring me and tell me where my dad is!"

The short pirate ducked under the spear and wildly swung out his sword causing the sword to coil up and shoot out like a spring to increase the thrust. The strike knocked up against the helmet of the armored kid but didn't seem to harm the kid. The visor of the helmet had only been knocked up revealing the scowling face of an annoyed looking red haired girl with green eyes who fell onto her back and lifted her spear to block the pirate's second, weaker strike.

"Stupid!" she shouted up at the short pirate, "Why'd you stupid pirates even kidnap my dad if you're too stupid to even use his inventions right!"

Before the pirate could do anything other than make an angrier expression the kid twisted the bottom of her spear causing the sharp end to shoot forward, scratching the fat pirate deeply in his cheek as he flinched back instinctively. The pirate shouted in rage and struck down with his sword, intending to kill the girl but got hit in the head from twenty feet away by Luffy who wasn't quite sure what was going on but knew that trying to kill a kid was a jerk move.

"'Ey you! Leave Ronny alone! Stay outta this an' we'll get back to killing you soon," the tall pirate shouted as he waved his sword threateningly in Luffy's direction but stalked forward to help his buddy take care of the little girl once and for all.

Ignoring Luffy turned out to be a bad idea though when Luffy sling-shotted his arm all the way over to the pair and punched them far away from the little kid, causing a long trench to be formed in the sand. The two pirates stumbled back to their feet but when Luffy raised his fist again for another round the two decided if the crazy beach girl now had backup like Luffy it would be wiser to run away.

Luffy looked down to where the girl was still sitting in the sand and with stars in his eyes said, "Your armor and spear are so cool! Let me borrow the spear!"

Luffy made grasping motions with his hands, indicating he was eager to snatch the spear away but the girl pulled it closer to herself and stood up to her full height (still a foot shorter than Luffy) and said, "Who're you? I've never seen anyone who could stretch like you."

"I'm Monkey D Luffy and I'm going to be King of the Pirates!" he said proudly to which the girl immediately showed her distaste for by trying to stab Luffy in his face with her spear which he easily dodged.

She continued to take a stab at him all while she shouted and yelled at him, "Ugh - a pirate! I hate pirates! You stink! You're mean! You kidnapped my dad! Give him back! Tell your boss to give him back!"

"Hey! I don't have a boss! I'm the captain of my crew!" Luffy argued with the little girl and ducked around another spear strike with a twist that would have dislocated the spine of anyone who wasn't made out of rubber.

"No, you aren't, you stupid pirate. That jerk Ganzack is the only captain on this island!" the girl argued back before suddenly her expression changed from anger to surprise and a split second later after that stopped stabbing at him and with an excited grin on her face she said, "Ah-ha! I understand now! There's finally some mutiny in the ranks! You want to be captain and got thrown overboard and now you want to kick Ganzack's stupid butt in revenge, right?"

"No. I want to eat." Luffy said bluntly and turned to walk away from the girl.

"Wait!" she said and feeling desperate for help without thinking blurted out, "I'll let you use my spear and give you all my food if you help me find my dad, he's who I treasure the most in the world!"

"Really?!" Luffy shouted excitedly until his stomach let out a loud growl and he hunched over in misery, "Can we eat first? I'm really, really hungry."

"Fine, follow me. You can eat first and then we'll go," the girl began to walk down the beach, leading the way as Luffy followed behind, excited over the promise of some food. They walked a little past a kilometer to a combination home and shop outside of a distant town with a faded sign hanging by the door that simply read "Herring's Curiosities" with the name Herring crossed out in black and the words 'Dead Man's' freshly painted in yellow beneath it.

Upon seeing the sign the girl scowled and with her spear unhooked the loops of the sign hanging on the hooks above the door in order to take it down. As she unlocked the shop she muttered, "I'll get Geel and Iaana for painting this later. I don't care if they go crying to their mamas either."

Once she opened the door to the home-shop Luffy followed behind her and began to look around oohing and ahhing over the different objects around the shop. Sand had been scattered and tracked over the majority of the floors and there were only a few little crab themed clocks, music boxes, and wind-up crab toys scattered around mostly barren shelves. If there were other nautical themed things they had been removed long ago.

The most amazing thing in the shop however was a pair of playsets in the middle of the room. The first playset was modeled after a castle and had three five foot tall mannequins standing out in front in elaborate costumes: a queen wearing a beautiful blue gown and handheld fan inlaid with shining metal and sparkling stones, a king with a scepter as ornate as the fan the queen held who wore a velveteen crown and a knight striped of his armor and weapon.

The second playset had Luffy all over it. A pirate fort (indicated by the skull and crossbones flag raised above it) that had not just three, but five mannequins standing in the front. A mannequin pirate navigator wearing orange and white stripes that came with a spyglass and compass, a mannequin pirate gunner in a red bandana with a real black powder keg and cannon wicks, a mannequin pirate bosun wearing a leather belt and pouch with a little cat-o-nine tails, a mannequin everyman pirate with an eyepatch and little cutlass and best of all a mannequin captain in a fancy feathered hat with a cool hat pin in it, red captain long coat and a treasure map. Luffy had already squeezed himself into the captain's coat and was poking at the eyepatch pirate with the spyglass by the time the girl had realized he wasn't following her and went back to find him again.

Seeing that he was playing around she puffed up indignantly and yelled, "Hey - we came here for you to eat not for you to play with the merchandise. Leave that alone, my dad will need to sell it once he comes back so we can have some money while he builds up inventory again."

Luffy shucked off the play captain's coat but didn't stop poking at the mannequins as he absently said, "You sure have fun looking pirate toys, my brothers and I just got ours from the stuff people threw out. You should build a tall tree fort like we did!"

"A tree fort? That would be so cool!" the girl said before remembering her mission and saying, "Never mind that! I have the food - here. Eat up so we can go to Ganzack's base and rescue my dad."

She handed Luggy a small pack of seed cakes, five dried crabs, a pair of hard boiled quail eggs, six strips of snake jerky and a single fresh oyster. Luffy stuffed the seed cakes in his mouth even as he complained, "Aww, you don't have any meat?"

"Of course I don't. Meat is expensive you stupid pirate," the girl said crossly, clanking a little bit as she crossed her armored arms in front of herself impatiently.

Luffy polished off the rest of the food (including the shells) and with another pout said, "I'm still hungry."

"We'll get you more food but only after you finish helping me. You seem a little stupid so I'll take you back to Ganzack's base but I think you can probably beat him if we get caught," she straightened up and said, "You have my word as a future pira- er I mean my word as a future knight that I will fight without fear. I'm the toughest kid on the entire island after all!"

"Can you dress up in one of these?" Luffy asked as he pointed at the little mannequins in pirate clothes.

The girl crossed her arms and said, "No way! Even if I still liked pirates I'd still wear the knight armor if I was gonna invade a pirate base. As my dad says, 'Medaka may be a ruffian but Medaka isn't stupid' after all."

"Wow, we should probably pick up Medaka on our way to the base then, shouldn't we?" Luffy said, feeling proud of himself for coming up with such a great idea.

"You stupid pirate - I'm Medaka," she snapped and pointed out the door, "Let's go. The sooner we find my dad the sooner you can eat some more."

Luffy went. He was still playing with the little toy spyglass, had the cool hat pin stuck in his straw hat as he ran after Medaka but she wasn't scolding at him over it so he knew it was fine. With any luck he'd get more food (maybe even real meat) at some point during this adventure after all.

"~Do what I want, 'cause a pirate is free ~ I am a pirate! ~Yar har, fiddle di dee ~ Being a pirate is alright with me, ~Do what I want 'cause a pirate is free, ~I am a pirate!" He cheerily began singing off tune as he followed behind Medaka to which she tried to ignore because if there was one thing she had learned from the pirates now living on her island it was that pirates were awful. Even if it was only their singing.

---

Fwaaash!

The sound of an explosion down at sea level was just enough warning to allow Balloon and Ann to avoid the follow up attack from below. The last place Ann had expected to be attacked was 4000 meters above the East Blue but the pink flamed attack was dodged by Balloon, who swooped out of the way just in time. Ann turned her brass telescope in the direction that the attack came from and saw a sea monster wearing a kabuto helmet - its mouth was still expelling pink smoke from the blast.

It didn't seem to be a sea king but instead a magic familiar to the oddly armored man who was standing on top of the helmet of the sea monster. It was probably a magic using pirate like Spiel had been - one with a magical animal companion like herself but a water based one instead of a sky one like hers.

Fortunately this particular magic user didn't seem to be using air magic like Spiel had specialized in. Being up on Balloon's back gave Ann a lot more magic (all bird themed, which in her opinion wasn't much use in a fight) but it also gave Balloon amplified magical abilities that Ann's own magic powered up in return. A roc's essence (feathers, blood or otherwise) could amplify any magician's own powers but a roc who's own powers were amplified could do interesting things.

Balloon's beak opened wide and what appeared to be a beam of white light blasted down at the magic user and sea monster, though the sea monster evaded the attack thanks to its partner's direction.

Things like blasting compressed magic beams at their opponents.

Balloon's feathers hardened and glinted in the light like sharpened knives before he twisted into a dizzyingly fast barrel roll causing the sharp feathers to shoot down at their attackers who once again dodged and began swimming away in a single direction in a seemingly desperate move to escape the aerial attacks.

Or turning their feathers into razor sharp knives.

After soaring upward, Balloon and Ann followed their attacker and target by dropping out of the sky at a high speed directly towards them. All in all Ann decided that she and Balloon were doing fairly well for their first magic battle since their run in with Spiel - at least up until they ran into the magic barrier surrounding the island that the other magic user and familiar had ducked behind.

It felt like they had flown into a wall of thick glue. Ann could spot a previously invisible island now - the barrier had been hiding it completely and now that she and Balloon were stuck in it they could finally see through it. Instead of rapidly crashing down into the ocean below she and Balloon were falling like they were in a waterfall of cold syrup. They were going down but not very quickly.

The voice of the armor wearing, magic using pirate was loud enough to reach her high up in the air and he sounded both like he was kicking up a fuss about her crew showing up and with a laugh was also utterly delighted in his win against Ann and Balloon.

"Kanininini! That's what you get for underestimating me you stupid witch! I have all the important skills in the world: science, magic and battle ability! Nothing and no one can stop me now! I will be the greatest of all! The next pirate king even!"

Balloon voiced his disagreement with the pirate's egocentric statement with an angry 'geshaaa' and Ann echoed her agreement with his statement as she boldly said, "Not a chance! My captain is the one who's going to be the pirate king."

The magic using pirate scoffed and said, "Your captain will be dealt with soon enough, witch. He'll be trapped on my island with nowhere to escape. I've incapacitated his ship and that scraggly beast tamer of yours has already been dealt with thanks to my bomb. Once I bury you and your pet under the edge of my barrier I'll have all the time I need in the world to crush your captain before I leave this place for good."

"And what's the name of this self-proclaimed future pirate king from this sea of schemers?" Ann taunted from above.

"I know better than to fall for that trick, witch. I'm no fool that just started practicing magic recently," he said with a haughty expression on his face. Ann and Balloon were now low enough stuck in the barrier for Ann to make up the details of this magician's appearance more clearly.

He was a normal sized man who's crab-like armor looked even more ridiculous up close than it had been from a distance. The armor on his back even included large crab claw shaped shoulder gauntlets. He also was wearing blue pants and a blue ankle long cape. He had purple hair that was long and tied up into a ponytail and a purple beard. He had red rings around each of his eyes like a malevolent panda and an X-shaped scar on his left temple. On the top of his head he wore a black tricorn hat with what Ann assumed to be was his jolly roger on it.

He stood full of confidence on top the head of his sea monster companion who had a humped body, four flippers, and a long, flexible neck sticking out of the water. Its jaws alone looked large enough to swallow a human being whole. Its sole accessory was a plated kabuto helmet, emblazoned with his magician partner's jolly roger and also amusingly enough adorned with crab claws so it matched the crab aesthetic of its partner as well.

Ann responded to his honestly very wise decision by saying, "Well it looks like we're at an impasse. You won't tell me your name and I can't just leave my crew stuck on this hidden island of yours. I'll just tell you now that my captain hits problems like you pretty hard. Once I get free though you'll wish I had been the one to take you out of commission."

The pirate scoffed at Ann's statement and said, "Don't be stupid, witch. This is the strongest magical barrier I've ever made. I've been growing it for six months already. It keeps outsider eyes off the island, keeps the people here nice and docile like cute little sheep, and traps anyone with even the slightest amount of magical abilities trying to enter at the edge where I can feed them to Plesiosaurus here."

The sea monster smiled it's own greedy grin and opened its unhinged jaw like a snake, accidentally tipping both its helmet and the armored pirate down into the water below. It snapped its mouth shut at the pirate's shout of alarm and looked down into the water with concern in its eyes. The pirate broke through the surface of the sea and while treading in the water glared up at the sea monster and shouted, "What did I say! Don't open your mouth that wide when you have the helmet on! Get that helmet back on and eat this witch and her bird once they get stuck on the knoll. I've got plans to complete."

The pirate butterfly stroked to the shore and to Ann's amusement his armor made him look like a crab scuttling in the water. He may have been a fairly good black magic user but he obviously wasn't used to fighting a magic battle. You never left a field you created if you didn't know what type of magic the other person had. She pulled a feather from her pouch and went to work in unsticking herself and Balloon from this web with her own spell. She was sure Luffy and Zoro could handle themselves for a little while.

---

Zoro made it all the way to the island town without seeing any sign of either Luffy or Ann. As he was just stepping into town though a pair of teenagers about thirteen years old or so came running full speed from somewhere behind him and tripped over each other just as they passed him by. Their hard landing had them spilling the buckets of yellow paint and the brushes they had been holding all over themselves and the cobblestone street.

The two teens spotted Zoro standing above them from where they lay fallen in the road. They both had unruly blond hair though the one on the left had darker skin and dark brown eyes while the one on the right had freckles and lighter brown eyes.

The kid on the right outright glared at Zoro and accused, "Hey you tripped us you jerk! Just wait 'til I tell my mom!"

The looped chain around Zoro's harakami clinked a little bit as he ghosted his hand over his swords and with a hard look in his eyes asked, "Did I?"

His friend, having slightly more self preservation skills than his friend did, elbowed the freckled kid hard and said, "No sir, our mistake. We were fleeing for our lives away from the blood red beast's lair and Iaana's imagination was overreacting. Right Iaana?"

The false accuser agreed right away and said, "Yes, my mistake Geel. I most definitely tripped over myself on the cobblestone path."

"The blood red beast? Is this beast known for attacking or blowing up ships who wander too close to this island?" Dawn asked from where she was settled up in Zoro's hair which caused the two teens to startle in alarm. She had been camouflaged pretty well up there since her lure was as marimo green as Zoro's own hair.

"The blood red beast sunk your ship?" the slightly smarter boy, Geel apparently, asked as his skin paled significantly, "I once saw the beast throw a stone so hard that it cracked a tree apart so it could be true."

"Really? I once saw the beast wrestle a fifteen foot sea snake from the ocean and kill it with just her teeth."

"Is this blood red beast a sixty foot long sea monster who wears a kabuto helmet?" Dawn asked.

"What? No way! The blood red beast's a nightmare demon disguised as a seemingly adorable little girl. She broke Serpo's arm when she was only three years old." Iaana frantically explained.

"I remember when I was ten years old she got into a serious brawl with Big Jaune. She walked away without a scratch while he still has scars to this day from the fight. He hides in the smithy whenever she actually comes into town 'cause she still terrifies him."

"Even with pirates living on the island she's still somehow scarier to me than they are."

"True. It just isn't right for a girl to be so strong." The two young teens exchanged doleful looks at each other and then stopped to watch Zoro, seeming to be waiting for something.

There was a long beat of silence.

Zoro (deciding the encounter was now over) began to walk past them further into town. The two boys seemed shocked and together they called out "Wait!"

Zoro didn't wait.

Iaana continued to talk as he and Geel trailed behind Zoro (their paint and brushes left in the middle of the road without a care) as he said, "You realize we're talking about a girl younger than us that's strong enough to destroy trees and give scars to the blacksmith's apprentice, right?"

"Why does that matter?" Zoro asked rhetorically, though he received a response anyway from Geel.

"Because everyone on the island knows that little girls shouldn't go around beating up all the boys on the island and being all rough - they ought to be more delicate and play nicer, right?"

"I really don't care about what people should or shouldn't be able to do," Zoro said flatly. So what if a little girl was beating up all the boys who tried to fight her? It was more nostalgic for Zoro rather than something to be bothered over in fact.

He was fully in town now and the place looked really nice with clean gray cobblestone streets everywhere. The colors of the town looked bright and cheery with houses and businesses that were built with brick red stones and roof tiles that were painted sky blue. There were well groomed trees growing out of their designated areas every ten to fifteen feet apart and none of the business signs or windows seemed to be sun-bleached, scratched or chipped.

Right in front of an ornate water fountain however there were two wooden carts that the townsfolk were loading up with parcels, baskets of food and packages in an urgent though unpanicked manner. There were four burly looking pirates (two stationed at each cart) who were standing watch over the proceedings in a laid back manner that indicated some degree of a familiar, though monotonous, job.

"I think we just found the source of that sea monster and the explosion," Dawn spoke candidly with her voice softly down to Zoro who nodded in agreement, "If I know anything about Luffy's luck though I'd say he'll either be befriending these guy's captain or punching him before the day is through."

Zoro eyed one of the pirates with slight interest (mostly because said pirate carried a katana instead of the usual cutlass or machete that most average pirate swordsman tended to use) and said, "So one of these guys can take me to their leader and that's where Luffy will be? Makes sense to me."

Before Zoro could make a move to 'persuade' one of the pirates to bring him to their boss the two teenage wimps (as dubbed by Zoro's often ignored subconscious) boldly grabbed hold of Zoro and quietly hissed, "Stop."

Zoro shook the two off easily but Iaana continued to talk, "Don't start a fight with the pirates in town. That's one of the rules."

"Rules? Don't be ridiculous," Dawn said, "If the pirates just needed a neutral location to relax around then they wouldn't have armed guards transporting goods to their base. They'll attack you eventually."

"Only if hotheads like you and that blood red beast keep instigating fights with them," Geel argued back.

Iaana nodded in agreement, "That little brat keeps fighting pirates out on the shore and making pitfall traps at their base. She's going to get them fed up and they'll start making examples of people. Everyone knows the pirates went after her dad and killed him because she raised the alarm and tried to bring everyone together to fight them off when they first arrived."

"Yeah, if she keeps picking fights they might go after our parents next. Their captain said anyone who goes out of town is fair game to attack but the town itself is neutral ground."

"I've seen people hide from pirates or try to fight them off but I've never seen a whole town not even care that pirates have invaded unless there are a lot of marines around. It sounds like the only brave person on this entire island is this 'blood red beast' you seem to be mocking, even if she is a girl." Zoro said as he narrowed his eyes at the two young teens, who both seemed to wilt under both his expression and his harsh opinion.

On reflex the two began tearing up and began to sniffle which seemed to somehow instantly summon a pair of beautifully dressed women who were wearing eye-catching shades of yellow in order to simultaneously grab Iaana and Geel, hide them behind their bodies and scowl up at Zoro (since they were both petite). Iaana's 'rescuer' had identical features as her son though Geel's mother had brown hair, blue eyes and a lighter skin complexion than her own son did.

As though she were correcting a misbehaving toddler instead of speaking with an adult who openly carried three swords Iaana's mother scolded, "You big brute. Don't harass my son before your shift begins. Don't you know the rules? No pirate activities within town border."

"A pirate with a border?" Dawn muttered incredulously, "I take back what I said. Luffy's gonna hit their captain within five minutes of meeting him."

Zoro laughed at Dawn's comment and asked, "Does that mean I can drag one of these pirates outside this town and then make them take me to their base?"

Iaana's mother seemed to be puffing herself up to scold Zoro again but Geel's mother raised her hand and said, "Wait Safra. This isn't one of the pirates. I remember reading in the newspaper a few months ago about a famous bounty hunter who carries three swords and wears a green haramaki. You're the Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro, aren't you?"

Zoro regarded the brunette woman for a moment and said, "Yes I am."

The woman glanced across the courtyard over to where the four pirates were loitering, not paying any attention to the townsfolk, and turned black to Zoro to say, "You should talk to the mayor up at the town hall. A bounty hunter coming into town without documentation breaks the rules so you need to be registered. Please don't argue. The rules have kept the people living in this town safe for the last six months."

"What about the people who live outside of town?" Dawn spoke up.

Safra scoffed and said, "There aren't anyone else outside of town who matter, right Rumena? Just animals and castaways from the pirate attacks."

"What about the girl these two were talking about? Doesn't she live outside of town?" Zoro asked.

"That ruffian Medaka?" Rumina asked, looking alarmed, "She's not a local so she doesn't matter. About ten years ago a man named Herring arrived here and decided to live out on the beach with his daughter. He built a charming little toyshop but it didn't bring in enough money for him to buy a home here in town."

"All the great families live in town you know. That poor man, he was a widower you see. All the children liked his quaint little shop but that girl of his was always hurting our kids. Some people just aren't fit to handle uptown life - she was always getting into places she shouldn't be at like the mayor's office or else she was playing messy pranks in the town shops and was always getting into fights with the boys. She didn't have a mother to raise her right."

"Oh Safra, you know poor old Herring tried as best he could to reign that girl in but he was just too mild mannered to make any difference. She was just too wild. I heard her mother had been a pirate actually so she must take after her mother."

"Truly? Oh I hadn't heard that theory, how enticing -"

Zoro had at this time realized the two women were just gossiping together and that their son's had long vanished away and so this time he was successfully able to escape without any further notice. Spotting the four pirates moving to pull the carts full of stuff out of town presumably to their hideout Zoro grinned a smile that was as about as friendly as a shark's and followed them. He mentally promised to try to contain himself until he was certain of where the pirate base was located and once that happened no amount of rules would stop him from reuniting with Luffy.

---

"So now I have Zoro! I really want a musician next but Ann wants a navigator and Zoro thinks we need a cook." Luffy, after he had finished singing a pirate song, had began telling Medaka all about what great adventures he and Dawn had been having since he had set out. (Mostly because Medaka was the first kid younger than him that he had ever met and spent time with. He always had liked hearing Shanks' stories about his real pirate adventures when he was little so surely a kid younger than him would want to hear his own real pirate adventure stories, right?) and he had just barely started!

Medaka didn't believe a word of it.

"I knew stupid Ganzack's crew was full of dummies but you're the most delusional one I've ever seen," Medaka stubbornly said, "I'm not a dumb little kid now - I'm eleven and I know a story when I hear one. Ships don't talk and sail themselves, giant birds can't fly, marines wouldn't execute someone for no reason and chickens don't lay golden eggs. I hope you're as strong as you are stupid or we'll be in trouble soon. We're here."

Luffy was severely disappointed in seeing his first real pirate base. He had been imagining a cool fort with at least five flags, three times as many cannons and a ship docked out in front. Instead what Medaka had led him to was what appeared to be an old abandoned one story house. There were old barrels empty of their previously held liquor that were littered around the entrance, each labelled with a skull and crossbones which was the only sign of a jolly roger anywhere in sight. Tall beach grass grew up in tufts between house and the shore further away that indeed had a ship anchored off shore. Even though the ship was large and seemed to be plated in metal there wasn't even a pirate flag flying above it anymore which was practically a sacrilege to Luffy.

Medaka didn't care about what was above ground, all that was just the top. Never one to waste an opportunity she pulled Luffy into the building and they found themselves walking down into the basement of the house. There was a maze of dirt walled halls each either leading to rooms with locked rooms or else open to pirates who were bustling around with tools of all kinds or armed to the teeth with blades, pistols, muskets and mortars.

Luffy's nose twitched and he suddenly bolted down a side hall, causing Medaka to follow behind him as she called out, "Wait! Where are you going? We need to find where they're imprisoning my dad!"

"I smell food over here. It might be where they keep their prisoners, right?" Luffy said optimistically.

"Food? No way, you're just hungry and want to find the kitchen don't you?" Medaka accused.

Before Luffy could answer they ran into first a room that was neither a kitchen or a brig but a large room bustling with pirates who were carrying crates of explosives and mortars out to the opening a sea cavern out to where the ship they had seen weighed anchor off shore from a new angle. A man in red armor with shoulder gauntlets that looked like crab claws who looked slightly damp from seawater was directing the crew strictly from where he was standing overseeing their work.

"That's Ganzack," Medaka said before, with a fierce glare in her eyes, she gripped her spear tightly and ran towards the armored pirate captain with a desperate sounding shout, "Give me back my dad, you stupid pirate!"

If Ganzack was at all surprised over being attacked by a kid in his own base he didn't at all show it. Instead of startling or flinching away from the attack Ganzack just turned around and snatched the spear out of Medaka's hands without a single flinch. As he tossed the spear aside he turned around, looked scornfully down at Medaka and said, "Oh, it's just you again. I warned you last time that I'd take any weapon you used against me didn't I? Someone get this brat out of here and teach her a lesson."

"Give me back my dad! I'll beat you today because I have backup this time!" Medaka shouted as she flung herself away from one of the goons who tried to grab her.

"Backup? Who would back you up? Everyone on this island from my men to the townsfolk hates you," Ganzack said before he noticed Luffy just standing there staring at him intently, "Who the hell are you?"

"Me? I'm Monkey D Luffy. I'm helping Medaka with a treasure hunt to find her dad. Your armor looks really tasty, crab-guy."

"That's the guy, boss! The weirdo she teamed up with! He had magic like you do!" The short pirate from earlier on the beach, Ronnie, accused as he gestured frantically towards Luffy with his tall buddy Aary nodding in agreement behind him.

"I'm not magic, I'm rubber," Luffy denied as he demonstrated by stretching his cheek out two feet to the side of his face and releasing it with a snap causing the gathered pirates around him to clamor in alarm. Medaka was scowling up at him by now and wondered why was he talking so nicely to the people who were holding her dad captive, had she misjudged Luffy?

A greedy glint flashed in Ganzack's eyes and always glad to seize up talent, especially if it ruined children's dreams he said, "Oh really? You have an interesting ability kid. I'm the Glorious Captain Ganzack and I like to have strong subordinates on my crew. If you become one of my men and work hard you'll get all the treasure you can collect from permitted areas, a free official crew tattoo and a delicious feast every day. What do you say, young man, want to join my crew?"

"No, don't wanna," Luffy instantly refused, "I'm gonna be Pirate King so I'm my own captain. I can get my own treasures, my own tattoo and my own food. Not yours crab-guy."

"My name is Ganzack - not crab-guy! Show some respect, Monkey. I'm a powerful wizard, my armor can absorb any attack and I have this!"

Ganzack pointed his arm towards Luffy and launched a mortar towards him - it exploded in the air before it reached him and the resulting smoke obscured everyone's vision in the open air sea cavern.

"Kanininini, now you're dead you stupid Monkey! You should've taken my deal! Now I can finally finish up here on this island and go on to become King of the Pirates myself! Somebody get that armored kid out of here already, she's annoying me!"

Medaka raised her fists defensively, ready to begin another fight for her life but was interrupted when a barrage of rubbery fists exploded from the cloud of smoke, hitting away the pirates who had been rushing towards Medaka.

"What the-?" both Medaka and Ganzack were shocked over Luffy's unscathed survival.

"I'm gonna be Pirate King!" Luffy shouted, "Not a crabby pirate like you, crab-guy!"

"Don't call me crab guy, you stupid Monkey!" Ganzack shouted back before ordering, "What are you idiots waiting for? Get that stupid monkey and that brat now!"

The pirates surged forwards but Luffy didn't mind at all. He fought his way through the crowd of pirates, knocking them back in all directions with Medaka sticking close behind him hitting her own opponents with strikes hard enough that Luffy could hear the cracking of bones getting fractures! He knew he and his brother's weren't 'abnormally monstrous' like the bandits and Dawn and Mayor Woop Slap had warned.

He made it up to the front of Ganzack before long and launched a strong punch that landed hard against the chest of the man's armor. He didn't budge a single inch and instead let out a cackle, "Kanininini! My armor's the result of over a decade's study of magic and a lifetime of science - it won't be broken from a simple punch!"

"No punching your armor? Okay crab-guy," Luffy said as though he had been given helpful advice from a friend before he swung his fist at Ganzack again and hit him square in the side of his face so hard that he flew into the group of pirates that had been converging on them.''

Ganzack cursed and with gritted teeth slammed his hand down on the floor hard which pressed down on a hidden plate in the ground.

A blast of something pink and fluffy like cotton candy but glowing and more viscous shot up out of the ground and wrapped around Luffy and Medaka sticking them still like a bugs trapped in a spider web.

"Arguh! Let me go! Fight me! You crab-shell! Let me go!" Luffy shouted.

Ganzack cackled and said, "Too bad for you. You may have a witch on your crew but you obviously don't know how to fight someone with magic traps on their side! I've rigged this entire place with nets that can catch anyone who tries to attack me! You'd need strength enough to bend steel in order to get free of my special potion or my counterpotion! Men! We will have a banquet in honor of the completion of my armor and the eve of our voyage to more prosperous waters! Lock this idiot and that little brat in those shackles on the wall of the banquet hall and let's have a feast!"

Within a half an hour the pirate's party was in full swing with pirates drinking, eating, gambling and having a grand old time with Luffy and Medaka locked up in steel shackles on the far wall of their banquet hall. The potion had worn off by then but Medaka and Luffy were still locked up on the far side of the room, across from where Ganzack was sitting in a chair that was elevated up a foot from the ground as though he were some sort of king holding court. The room was partially lit from the ceiling itself, which had a smooth texture that was softly glowing pink. There were many tables and chairs scattered about filled with pirates, food and drink and Luffy looked on enviously as he watched Ganzack bite into the leg of something red and meaty with obvious relish.

With the party in full swing and Ganzack practically buzzing with excitement (and more intoxicated than he would admit to being) began amusing himself by mocking Luffy, "Kanininini! 'Look at me I'm a Monkey and I wanna be Pirate King but I'm too stupid to live.' That's what you sound like to me! You're so stupid and so's that runty brat! Who has the strongest armor? Me, not you with your stupid toy! Who's the smartest pirate ever who can do magic and fight and am a genius? Me!"

"Can't be that smart if you had to kidnap my dad in order to make anything," Medaka snarked rudely.

"That fool didn't make anything worthy! It was all me!" Ganzack yelled as he stood up in indignation, "I only needed that fool for my armor! Before that I designed and commissioned my amazing ship myself! Me! Take a look at how amazing it is!"

Ganzack slapped the wall behind his chair and a large sheet of paper unrolled from the ceiling down to the floor.

"Behold! My ultimate warship! She had a length of 184 feet, a beam of 29 feet, a draught of 6 feet, and can carry over 60 tons. She's powered by two sixty pound engines and is armed with two pivot-mounted 32-pounder and four 6-pounder guns. Her shallow draught will allow me to travel from the sea and into rivers so no one will be safe from my reach! Kanininini!" Ganzack bragged as he proudly slapped his hand on the schematic.

Luffy was unimpressed, "You're so dumb. That isn't a ship, that's just a drawing of a ship, crab-guy."

"Don't call me crab-guy! This is a schematic of my ship you stupid kid - a picture of my ship." Ganzack ordered.

Luffy wouldn't have cared if had been a picture of the one piece. He stretched up a finger to pick his nose and rudely said, "Don't care - your ship isn't as cool as mine anyway crab-guy. Mine's alive."

Ganzack stormed over to Luffy and snarled in fury as he got closer, intending to uphold his ego by crushing in Luffy's face for disrespecting him.

"I said to watch how you address me, you brat! There's no way your ship's alive! There's no magic in the world that can give life to the lifeless! It's me who has the strongest ship in all of history and I am on my way to becoming Pirate King!" Ganzack snarled threateningly as he pinched Luffy's face in a vice grip and twisted it back and forth trying to shut the rubber pirate up, knocking Luffy's hat from his head as a result. Then to add insult to injury he looked down at Luffy's fallen straw hat and stepped on it while he grinded his foot into it.

Luffy's face went so apocalyptic with rage that Medaka reflexively moved as far as she could away from his side out of nervousness. Medaka had never seen a face so angry and angry people could be unpredictable.

"THAT'S MY TREASURE! STOP STEPPING ALL OVER IT WITH YOUR DIRTY SHOE!"

Ganzack scowled and hissed, "It's just a dirty old straw hat."

"SHANKS GAVE THAT TO ME! DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH IT ANYMORE!"

"Shanks?" Ganzack asked with surprise crossing his face for a moment as he stroked his goatee in contemplation and followed up by asking, "What could a nobody like you have to do with a famous pirate like him?"

"NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS YOU JERK!" Luffy shouted back at him, "GIVE ME MY TREASURE BACK!"

Ganzack ground his foot harder into the hat and with a mocking laugh spread his arms wide and said, "Why don't you make me? Men, I've decided what we're going to do with these two pests. This banquet to celebrate my debut to the Grand Line will have the following entertainment: we're going to have an auction. I want to auction off this hat, this runty little brat and this weakling pirate in that order for the right to destroy them. The hat's auction starts at a mere 100 beris, doesn't that sound like a good time? Kanininini!"

The crowd of pirates roared out their approval over their captain's bloodthirsty plan.

"I'm gonna use all my savings and shove a spear down that armored brat's throat," Ronny from the beach conspired to his buddy Arry with a wickedly enthusiastic chuckle, "Pool in with me, would' ya?"

Before Arry could agree or refuse Ronny's request the four pirates on delivery duty came into the banquet hall in an unconscious heap, silencing the entire room so that a single comment could be heard throughout the entire hall.

"Is saving each other from executions going to be a thing we do on every island on this crew?"

Everyone turned their attention over to Zoro who, with Dawn's lure still perched on his head, had already taken care of the pirates he had followed from the town into pirate base. He had been listening to the crab armored pirate captain for only a minute or so but enough was enough.

"What's everyone standing around for - get him!" Ganzack ordered, sending his men into action.

While everyone's attention was drawn away from them Medaka took the chance to swiftly-but-carefully snatch Luffy's hat up from the floor with her feet and pulled the skull-and-crossbones hatpin that had been stuck in its ribbon out free.

Luffy watched Medaka with interest as she stuck the sharp end of the pin into the lock of his cuffed hands and said, "Don't you want want out first?"

"I would, but you're my only chance to get out of this alive, so you'd better not lose again." Medaka scolded and glared at him as he began to pull at the cuff, "Will you stay still already so I can get you out?"

"Yeah, like this?" Luffy asked as he slid his wrists free from the cuffs and handed them back to Medaka who looked frustrated at his actions.

"Could you have freed yourself from these whenever you wanted?" she asked trying to decide whether she wanted to stab him with the hatpin or not.

"Only when I felt like it. I'm gonna hit Ganzack three times for each time he stepped on my hat!" Luffy declared and flung himself into the fight against the masses of pirates.

Ganzack quickly moved so the majority of his crew were now between Luffy and himself and made a new order, "Stop! The one who brings me that Monkey brat's head will be given 100 kilos in gold! Fight! Kill! Win!"

The pirates roared out their approval and attacked Luffy with a gold lusting frenzied free for all, pissing Luffy off since all he wanted to do was punch Ganzack in the face!

Medaka made short work of removing the cuff from herself with the hatpin and once she was free stuck the pin back in the straw hat still left in her hands and pushed the hat snug between herself and the chestplate of the armor she was wearing in order to keep it safe. Once she finished storing Luffy's treasure safely away she glared at the melee and went in to fight.

Most of the pirates were attacking Luffy, though a few were forced to engage in combat with Zoro and then Medaka simply for the reason that the two were attacking the pirates anyway.

Since her spear had already been taken from her by Ganzack she ran over to where a pirate laid unconscious on the floor, picked up his sword and ran into the fight with an energetic battle cry as her visor fell over her eyes. Somehow she found herself fighting in the same area as Luffy's green haired crewmate. Considering there was a lack of specific details in Luffy's stories from on their way to Ganzack's base she assumed that it was Zoro instead of Ann, all things considered.

"It that guy really your captain?" She called out as she ducked benieth the swing of a taller pirate's sword and slashed at him with her own, causing him to stumble backwards directly in the range of Zoro's own attack.

"Luffy? Yeah he's the captain. There aren't many of us: there's a blue girl, a few birds, a ship and me. Do you even know how to use a sword?" Zoro asked as he watched Medaka gracelessly swinging her pilfered katana around without a single ounce of skill, mostly in a 'swing-swing-stab' kind of motion most kids used when they were play fighting each other with sticks.

"Yes. The sharp end gets pointed at the other guy." Medaka said confidently and swung her arm out again at another pirate.

"No. I'm going to save us from having to arrange a funeral," Zoro said as he disarmed the reckless girl easily and shooed her towards a downed pirate who had a loaded pair of pistols instead. At least that would be safer.

She adapted quickly to the new method of fighting and began firing at, and disabling pirates at a rapid rate. Zoro was almost taken aback when the girl lifted and tossed one of the heavy wooden chairs with ease towards a fleeing pair of fat-and-thin pirates and knocked them flat. Strong for a kid? Noted. Girl? Noted. This must be the kid the boys from town were so terrified of. She was shorter than he thought she would be.

Zoro fought his way over to Luffy's side since Medaka seemed to be handling herself pretty well and watching Luffy bite into a leg of meat that had been discarded with one hand and hit another goon with another said, "So is this some sort of working lunch?"

"Zoro! This jerk Ganzack ate meat right in front of me and stepped on my hat! I have dibs on fighting him!" Luffy said crossly, completely worked up into a rage.

"Dibs? What's dibs?" Zoro asked in confusion.

"It's a word Dawnie made up. It means I go first! Dibs on a place to sleep, dibs on eating meat, dibs on punching stupid jerks in their stupid faces!" Luffy shouted the last bit, sweeping his leg through the room, which Zoro skillfully jumped over while the rest of the people in the room were knocked off their feet. (As she stood back up Medaka took the time to shout, "Warn me next time, you idiot!")

"I didn't make it up, I just know it's a real word somewhere," Dawn said defensively. Some words seemed to translate from what she wanted to say and what people understood and some…just didn't sound right"

"Where did Ann go? Do you know, Zoro?" Luffy asked.

"Maybe she's helping her bird fight the sea monster that was attacking them from somewhere Dawn can't see," Zoro suggested.

"Really!? How cool! I call dibs to fight the next sea monster!" Luffy demanded as he punched out another couple of goons.

"You don't have time to be distracting each other you fools. Unless you want me to crush this little crab-cake's throat," Ganzack's voice interrupted from his elevated platform. Luffy and Zoro gritted their teeth when they realized he had his arm outstretched with many strands of weird pink glowing ribbons shooting out of his glove, now tangled up all around Medaka's armor.

Medaka stopped her struggling at his comment and said, "What did you call me?"

"Oh? That was your father's nickname for you wasn't it, little crab-cake? The whole crab aesthetic disturbs me but with his scientific knowledge I finally have this greatest armor that combines the best of both offense and defense in both technology and magic. Your father's greatest use in this world was in coming back to me. With science and magic united together I can be the best version of me. These two fools will soon be crushed just like that witch and her bird was by Plesiosaurus! Kanininini!"

---

Ann wasn't still fighting Ganzack's sea monster actually. She had, in the end, been forced with the necessity of leaving Balloon behind for him to deal with the sea monster once they reached the shore of the hidden island. While she followed her magical trail he valiantly decided to stay behind in order to fight and distract Plesiosaurus the Leviathan away from raising the alarm to his partner. Following the feather dust sparrow past the shore it took a somewhat zigzagged path which eventually lead her to what seemed to be the black magic using pirate's base. More importantly it lead to what looked to be a combination of a metal workshop and potions lab. It was extremely cluttered and trying to find answers would be a chore but she needed to find the pirate's name or his primary magical focus or she would be forced to use up more magical energy than she could spare in order to continue to break his spells.

The trail finally lead her to the corner of the room where an old journal had been negligently tossed away. It was much more worn than the leather journals that were stacked on the desk in the center of the room and Ann quickly flipped through it only to find it looked to be a personal journal/scientific log of sorts. The entry dates stopped a little over eleven years ago. She sped through reading it and found that it chronicled the progress of a scientist voyager by the name of Ganzack Herring who had discovered and begun to study magic. This had to be the pirate her crew was now facing.

It seemed that Ganzack had simply been studying the nature of magic when he received news that his wife was pregnant and became aware that he suddenly had developed slight magical energy at the same time. He already knew from his studies that mages were somewhat rare and coveted for their power. Magic seemed to manifest randomly among any race and age without any obvious rhyme or reason. Among the people who could use magic some could use it better than others though it wasn't clear how or why. Each mage had their own 'style' of performing magic with only a few distinct, named "spells," or "potions" that were readily available to any of them. Mages had to craft their own style of magic that would suit them best.

Seeing the possibilities Ganzack decided he was going to create the ultimate protection spell - one that could perfectly protect his child from everything evil in the world. On January 14th his wife gave birth to a daughter who she named Medaka before passing away right after and Ganzack decided it was time to perform his first 'perfect' self-crafted spell.

Ann winced and wished someone had told Ganzack that trying to 'perfectly' do anything with magic made it much more prone to backfiring, which could mean that he had been hit by his own spell in addition to having an assumed beneficial spell go very badly wrong. There was a potion recipe that included not only magical ingredients but also a spoken spell, a soul vow and a blood ritual.

1511, JAN 15

11:56 pm.

I have started this alone... and I must finish it alone.

There is no longer a choice... I know that I must use

myself as the subject of the spell. There is no

choice! I must put aside the fears I feel inside.

There's no place to hide from those devils in CP9

who are sure to come for me. One last final chance

that only I can take now everything I've fought for

is at stake! Like a warning light, glimmering in red,

beautiful and strange. I see the colours change

before my eyes! They dance and they sparkle like

diamonds at night leading out of the darkness and

into the light!

11:58 pm

I consumed 10 centiliters of Potion HJ #1. It has a

salty, bitter taste. Stings on the tongue.

Warm in the gullet. Heat is spreading strongly

through my veins. I have a slight feeling of euphoria.

Lightheadedness. No noticeable behavioral

differences. I must be diligent. I must try to analyze

each change. This is all for her I must do all I can to

protect her from everything I've seen. Now the die

is cast - nothing left to do but wait.

11:59

My God! - What's this?

Something is happening - I can't explain it-

Something's inside me, a breathtaking pain,

It's splitting and destroying me

The pain is enough to drive me insane

Suddenly - uncontrolled -

Something is tearing free

Suddenly - agony -

Filling me - killing me?

Suddenly - out of breath -

What is this - is this death?

Suddenly - look at me!

Can it be?

Who is this creature that I see?

The paper had been speckled with brownish stains that Ann was nearly positive was blood. In the last entry of the journal the penmanship and orderly handwriting suddenly changed to a larger size with letters that seemed more jagged with thicker lines, as though more pressure was being used on the pen with only a single word written beneath the date.

1511, JAN 16

Free

Well that certainly was ominous. With a pinch of remaining feather dust she focused and tried to find anything more recent and was lead to a bundle of clothing wrapped around another journal. This one was written simply by 'Herring' and she read what happened that night when he took his homebrewed potion. The potion had been meant to keep his daughter protected perfectly from evil for ten years but instead of the desired outcome he had been split into two different halves. The "merciless pirate wizard" Ganzack and the "protective brilliant scientist" Herring.

Herring, upon seeing the danger his Ganzack half would cause his daughter, kidnapped her away from himself and ran away to a randomly selected island in order to keep her safe. The protection of the spell actually seemed to work to Herring's delight, who had taken to living as an eccentric toymaker for the island very well. Nothing physical seemed to harm his daughter and she was strong enough to wear the densest of metals effortlessly and never had a scrape or injury when she played rough with her friends from the nearby town.

Unfortunately after ten years the protective spell had finally begun to unravel making his daughter vulnerable again. To make matters worse Ganzack, Herring's "evil half", was finally able to sense his "good half" and came looking for him in order to gain Herring's scientific knowledge in order to increase his power to its full potential once again and after six months eventually found him.

When Ganzack arrived on the island he captured his scientist half and through a rather horrifying self crafted ritual Ganzack consumed the heart of his good half Herring in order to reabsorb his skills and knowledge back into himself. Herring, having focused for the last decade on science instead of magic, and being made up of the feelings more than the actions of the whole Herring Ganzack, was unable to defend himself from the ritual. After it was completed Ganzack had all of Herring's skills and memories but none of Herring's love or empathy. The only thing Herring think of to do was include a final entry in his journal that would act as an apology to his daughter for not being strong enough to fight his evil half. He hoped that Medaka would be able to escape Herring's attention and live well.

Ann was trying not to cry but the entire tragedy was eating her up. Ganzack was cruel not only to himself but to his own daughter as well. This girl, Medaka, needed to at least be told that her father Herring was gone now, didn't she? She wondered if she should tell the girl that Ganzack was now the only aspect of her father.

Ganzack who, now that she looked closer at his notes (having regained his note taking habit from Herring), had documented that over the previous six months that he had been building a single incredible battlesuit that would combine both his new scientific ingenuity and magical power.

His desire to set sail to take on the Grand Line and be pirate king definitely set him at odds with Luffy and if Ann were the type to gamble she would place anything she had on the fact that Luffy would eventually fight with Ganzack, if he wasn't already in the middle of doing so. The sound of a crash and the clamour of fighting jolted Ann into action again. Once she got to where the fight was she would find her crew.

She grabbed one of Balloon's feathers and as she exited the room nearly ran into the sword of a battle frenzied pirate. She knocked him out by imbuing the feather with a short term sleeping spell (three seconds at most in a fight, half an hour at the most if she wanted an instant nap) that was her most useful single word spell (it was the spell that allowed her to get the upper hand in her fight with Spiel's old bosun after all) and while he was frozen in place hit him over the head with the pommel of his own sword.

By the time she reached the pirate's banquet hall the sound of fighting had come to a stop.

It appeared to be a stand off with between Luffy and Ganzack with Luffy who obviously wanted to rush at Ganzack but the pirate tech mage apparently had a hostage - a little kid dressed up in armor.

It instantly clicked in her head that the kid was Medaka. She was closer to Ganzack than she was to Luffy and so with a somewhat reckless charge Ann rushed over to the girl and with a single swift movement severed the pink magic ribbon with her feather-knife. One magic substance to cancel out the other, otherwise the ribbons as thin as they were thanks to magic would be as strong as iron.

"You're a reliable one, aren't you? Good. Let's go Luffy," Zoro said and raised up his swords again. He grudgingly mentally commended Ganzack's men for their grit in not running away yet.

"Cool! Great job saving Medaka, Ann! We'll take care of this now!" Luffy said, agreeing with Zoro's statement and ignored the crew, focusing his attention completely at Ganzack who was still staring at his cut ribbon with a mixture of shock and anger.

"You're Medaka, right? You need to get out of here before you get hurt," Ann said to the girl, who seemed to be shocked silent for some reason.

"Ganzack has my dad though. I need to save my dad." Medaka said stubbornly.

"That man killed your dad. He's a mage and he used your dad in a ritual to get his scientific knowledge," Ann said, not wanting to get into the specifics of splitting and recombining people at this moment, and had to grab Medaka and pull her away as Ganzack open fired a gun from his crab claw shoulder gauntlet in their direction.

"You're a soft touch for a witch," Ganzack growled, "That little crab-cake is stupider than I thought if she hasn't figured out by now that the man she considers her father will never return!"

"Shut up, stupid Ganzack!" Medaka screamed, "You don't know that! My dad loves me! He's the only person I have who loves me!"

Ganzack smiled wickedly and without a shred of remorse said, "Not anymore. Didn't you know? Didn't your so named 'dad' ever tell you your true origin? I am your father and I ate the heart of your dad. Maybe if you prove you can be as ruthless as I am I'll let you join my crew as a chore girl. If you destroy the hat of that pirate brat that you've been holding onto I'll allow it as your initiation into my crew as an official pirate."

Ganzack continued to mock Medaka, who had frozen completely at his revelation, by saying, "I can fix stupid and weak but someone as gutless has no place in my crew. What do you say, little crab-cake, want to sail the seas with your dear ol' dad?"

Medaka burst into angry tears and pulled the straw hat out from her armor.

She looked at it with fierce eyes for only a second before she threw the hat like a discus directly towards Luffy as she shouted, "I won't destroy Luffy's treasure! You can't make me! You killed my real dad! I'll never forgive you!"

Ganzack laughed meanly and said, "Too bad, I guess I'll have to eat your heart just like I ate his! Kanininini!"

There was a loud smack and crack as Ganzack stopped laughing in order to stem the blood coming from his broken nose courtesy of Luffy who, though he now had his precious straw hat back on his head, looked apocalyptically angry.

"Luffy! That's Medaka's father," Ann shouted trying not to feel shocked over his actions while Luffy raged.

"I don't care! A bastard's still a bastard!" Luffy angrily shouted as he raised his fist in to attack Ganzack again, hating the man for stealing his friend Medaka's father's life and the fact that he continued to mock Medaka's hopes and dreams.

Ganzack twisted the knife further and viciously ignored Luffy in order to revel in the glee of making Medaka feel more miserable, "Didn't you wonder how you could get away with attacking my men so many times without any true retaliation? I could have burned down that little stupid shack you live in at any point or killed you myself but I thought you might have potential to be my subordinate. I can't believe you ever thought someone like you could make it as a pirate! I need someone ruthless and skilled in either magic, science or fighting but you fail in all areas! You can stay on this island and die for all I care, I'll never want to have you as my daughter - Kanininini!"

Medaka turned away from the room and ran away, escaping from the banquet hall door that Ann had entered through while Ganzack continued to laugh.

Ganzack should've seen it coming but Luffy's fist hit him square in the face again - knocking him so hard his ears started ringing and with a snarl of fury Ganzack decided he was completely fed up with the witch, the swordsman and that monkey!

"I've had enough of this!" Ganzack shouted and raised his arm up over his head and with a loud bang fired his gauntlet rifle up into the pink, glowing ceiling which shattered and instantly fell, flooding the room with the viscous pink potion he was so proud to be the creator of. Everyone was stuck fast to the ground - including Ganzack and his men who called out to him in confusion.

Ganzack, of course, ignored their distress and freed himself rather easily with a counter-potion before he went around and freed anyone he deemed worthy (ruthlessly dispatching any of his subordinates who were knocked out or severely injured himself with shots from his battle suit).

He left Luffy, Zoro and Ann stuck to the ground and instead of killing them where they stood Ganzack faced his men to make another announcement, "Now men. You've seen how weak and wealthy the people of this island are - able to fund us nearly effortlessly with tributes of food, supplies and gold every day for the last six months that we've been stopped here but today it all ends. I am lifting the border rules for the town as of right now - while I prepare my ship to leave this place you get to go into town and loot and take anything you've desired and then kill and burn the rest of it into ashes! We'll leave these fools here to starve and wither away in this cavern forever!"

His crew roared out their excitement and left en masse with Ganzack leading the way in assumed triumph. Ganzack didn't question why he had mentally dismissed the three young pirates as a threat when he already knew one was a witch, one had already hit him hard enough to break his nose and the last was notorious for being a pirate hunter. (He was especially unaware that in the most hidden part of his subconscious, thanks to his misunderstanding of the very nature of protection magic, the last remaining shred of what had once been Herring was furious over Ganzack breaking their vow to protect their daughter and would for the rest of his life be doing its very best to self-sabotage Ganzack's grand plans in revenge for making Medaka cry.)

Ann watched a bit conflicted as Luffy stretched his neck far enough out that he was now biting the edge of the door frame that Ganzack and his remaining living crew had exited while Zoro was looking between his legs and the two swords in his hands in a manner that immediately made Ann remember he probably would've broken his arms to escape death less than two weeks ago.

Her hands were currently stuck and she had dropped Balloon's feather anyway so the only way out of this mess of a potion would be a verbal spell and that meant she needed to let her captain (and Zoro since he was in the same room) know that she was an evil magic user like Ganzack was and Spiel had been. It was time to face the music...

"Luffy? I can get us out of this but before I do I need to let you know something. I'm a black magic user just like Ganzack is and like Spiel was. I'm sorry I've kept it from you," Ann ducked her head in shame and continued, "I can use a spell to get us out of this and then after we resolve things here I'll accept your decision regarding what to do with me."

"Magic? Magic! Do a spell - do a spell!" Ann lifted her head again in order to stare in shock over Luffy, who had stars in his eyes due to his excitement as he wiggled about enthusiastically. He sounded thrilled and excited, which was typical of him, and yet somehow not a reaction that Ann had been expecting.

"What are you waiting for then? If you have a way to get us free do it." Zoro was a surprise too, only in the fact that he didn't care about her reveal unless it was useful for their escape.

Ann nodded at their word, now wasn't the time to just talk, she needed to act. With a commanding tone of voice she spoke, "Feathers free us without tearing - this potion brew-ed up by Herring - So captain, swordsman, witch pay back - against that bastard jerk Ganzack!"

Luffy shishishi-ed with delight when the pink glowing goop transformed nearly instantly from its steel-glue state into about a million pink feathers instead, making the room look like the molting grounds for a six-generational flock of flamingos.

Zoro snorted and with a short but gut deep laugh said, "I never thought cursing people and cursing went together so well."

"What's with all the feathers?" Dawn asked as her lure gobbled up one of the pink feathers as a snack.

"I specialize in bird magic," Ann admitted a bit self deprecatingly, "it isn't very useful in a fight, I know. I can only really use other kinds of magic with Balloon's help."

"Seems useful to me," Dawn said as she gulped down another feather, "Shouldn't we be going after that 'bastard jerk Ganzack'?"

At Dawn's reminder of his goal of punching Ganzack's face again Luffy let out a challenging roar and ran out of the room in the direction of his opponent with Zoro and Ann at his heels right behind him. Enough tricks, Ganzack and his crew were going down.

---

Like a plague Ganzack and his men were surging up along the shore road certain of their coming victory when just when they were coming up to the entrance of the town the straw hat pirates closed the gap.

Iaana and Geel, who had been loitering around just outside the town, gaped in terrified awe at the resulting clash. Luffy, with his long stretchy limbs was grabbing and bodily flinking people into trees a hundred meters off. Zoro, the boy's living embodiment of a terrifying beast (green male version) was using two swords, still in their sheaths (hand-hand) to take out people and two chains (leg-leg) to catch and pull mooks closer into his attacking range. Scariest of all was Ann who, to their view, was stunning pirates with just one hand (holding a magic feather) and giving them devastatingly accurate knee strikes to unpleasant parts, leaving a trail of bodies, crouched over on absolute misery.

The boss pirate Ganzack, dressed for some reason in armor that made him look like a human-crab, broke free of the battle and pressed something on the gauntlet on his arm that seemed to make the world explode.

It was actually just an overpowered mortar but none of the pirate attacks had ever happened so near to the town before. The blast was enough to shatter the windows of the homes at the edge of the town border. During the aftermath of the explosion Ganzack charged into town, nearly frothing at the mouth in his fury with a dozen of his remaining men following right behind him. The straw hats weren't far behind and didn't intend to let them get away that easily.

No one had spared a single glance at Iaana or Geel who, standing with their paint brushes and had been waiting for the expected retaliation of the blood red beast from their actions in 'decorating' her house that morning.

"You don't think one of those pirates could've gotten the drop on her finally?" Geel asked Iaana as he watched the invading pirates with worry in his voice.

"No way, don't even joke about that. She's the scariest thing of all, right?" Iaana sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

As much as Iaana and Geel were as terrified of Medaka as all the other kids on the island were (from three to fifteen, boys and girls alike) they were also the only two who still deliberately went out of their way to instigate reactions from her instead of trying to avoid her wrath. This caused every other kid to believe the two were simultaneously the bravest and the stupidest amongst the town kids.

When the two spotted a flash of armor running up the path they instantly forgot their worries and jumped to their attack positions with their paint soaked brushes outstretched and in usion shouted, "Paint the beast!"

Medaka's reaction and retaliation was instantaneous. She lifted both of them by the back of their necks, shook them twice like ragdolls and slammed them into the ground with ease and shouted furiously, "I don't have time for this! Either get out of town or get killed by pirates for all I care but you'd better stay outta my way!"

She ran off into town a moment later, leaving the two laying in the street and stunned into silence.

"Iaana?"

"Yeah?"

"Tigers are scary, right?"

"Yeah."

"And pirates are scary?"

"...Yeah"

"And Medaka?"

"Still the scariest."

"Yep, definitely."

While in town Ganzack had split up from the rest of his forces and run to the dock at the front of the town. His ship had an engen and thanks to his technology it could be controlled from his armor. He had thought he had taken enough time in arriving to the town for the ship to have moved from his base to the dock out in front of the town but it was still coming in from the sea to dock. Those pirate kids (that stupid Monkey!) were making his plan fall to pieces but he could escape, bind a crew by magic to him again, and form a plan of taking his revenge later. He let out a piercing whistle to call for his pet but there was no sign of it. He gritted his teeth and dove into the water swimming as quickly as he could out to his ship.

Within the town Ganzack's men, unaware that they had already been left behind by their captain, were breaking the windows of businesses, tearing the jewels and silks off of the women they encountered in the streets and roughed up the men just for fun. The townsfolk, under enchantment thanks to Ganzack's barrier, just seemed more confused than scared over their actions.

"No pirate activities in town you know, that's the rule," A woman said as her jewelry was stolen from her.

"We'll report this to the mayor you know," a grocer warned after the window in front of his shop was shattered.

"Well I never. I'll be forced to get physical if you keep this up young man," a gentleman scolded a pirate who had slashed his arm with a cutlass, even as he pressed a handkerchief to the wound in order to stem the blood a little.

"Second Sleep!" Ann ran up behind the pirate and slashed him with the feather in her hand, causing him to wobble for a moment giving her room to swiftly perform a remorseless knee strike that dropped him to his knees, groaning in agony before she roundhouse kicked him in the side of his head, knocking him out.

"I thought you only did bird magic." Zoro commented accusingly, having watched Ann in action using a feather of all things.

"Yes. Feathers are on birds, right? A feather soft pillow will put someone right to sleep so I figured when I was seven that feathers would be great for charming people to sleep. It's hard to explain - my magic needs to be bird based but there is enough flexibility in that a lot of magic has to do with feelings and feathers feel like sleep so it's still bird based." Ann explained.

The last six pirates ransacking the town seemed to have been trying to attack the mayor just outside the town hall when Ann and Zoro came across them.

Spotting them first Zoro called out, "Dibs on these guys!" before rushing over to face them.

("What the heck are dibs!?" Ann called out as she watched causing Dawn, who was fluttering over her head to laugh.)

Zoro used the chains around his legs to sweep up and launch the six pirates into the air before he jumped up and spun 360 degrees with two swords in hand and attacked the pirates mercilessly as he shouted, "Night Air Bird!"

The pirates hit the ground and Zoro landed on his feet. "How about that, birds in a fight are useful after all." Zoro joked causing Dawn to chirp out a laugh.

Ann gave Zoro a deadpan stare and said, "That joke isn't funny."

"But it is punny," Dawn interjected before Zoro and Ann were besieged from all sides by confused and questioning townsfolk.

"Why are these people so weird? Is it a magic thing?" Zoro asked in irritation as the idiotic mom duo he had encountered earlier were pestering him to register as a bounty hunter with the mayor again.

"It's the barrier. Ganzack mentioned that one of its uses was to pacify the people on this island." Ann explained.

"That doesn't explain why that kid was so aggressive though. She kept attacking pirates didn't she? After six months, wouldn't she be all carefree and stupid like these people are?"

"Why were you fighting? It's against the rules to fight in town," the mayor said, continuing to fret.

Ann snapped, "Will you shut up about these rules!? We're trying to help so you idiots don't get killed!"

"Yeah this town is weird about rules," Zoro said, "Seems a boring place to live if you're not allowed to fight anywhere in town."

Ann snapped her fingers and said, "So that means that this must be the center. A barrier is strongest at its edge and in its centermost point. If this is a dome then… right above the fountain should be the center. Wait here. Balloon and I will break it."

Zoro watched as Ann let out a shrill whistle, calling Balloon to her side in an instant magically. He squawked angrily at her since he had been pulled away from the long battle he had just been about to win against the sea monster, but forgave her when she explained what they needed to accomplish together.

---

Luffy was running around town back and forth, searching for Ganzack amongst all the attacking pirates but couldn't find him anywhere. Zoro and Ann in the meantime were working to stop Ganzack's men as they came across them finding that they weren't very tough but just a tenacious group instead.

Luffy had finally run all the way through town and found himself on the dock. Ganzack's ship was off shore in the distance and was making its way out to the open sea, its engines audible even from the dock. Luffy spotted Ganzack's distinct crab-like silhouette on the deck and gritted his teeth in frustration, the crab-guy was leaving! He needed to hit him again!

Luffy stretched his arm far out to the sea and grabbed the rail of Ganzack's ship, intending to fight out on his ship before Ganzack could try to run away. As soon as he began sling shooting his way over though he felt someone grab onto the back of his legs in order to go along with him. A brief glance back by him only to see Medaka. The expression on her face was clearly ready for confrontation and had him grin despite the serious circumstances.

As soon as they landed on deck and got their footing Medaka was on her feet rushing towards Ganzack while simultaneously drawing out one of her pistols as she shouted, "You're going to pay for eating my dad, you evil pirate!"

She was yanked back suddenly by Luffy who pulled her back to stand behind him as he yelled, "I don't think so. I'm gonna beat him first and then you can shoot him if you still want to."

Ganzack laughed again and said, "Go ahead and try it, you stupid Monkey brat. You failed before and you'll fail again!" He jumped up to the main deck up to the quarterdeck of his ship with Luffy right behind him a split second later.

"Take this!" the legs of Ganzack's armor began shooting out electrified pellets, blazing hot fire blasts, explosive mortars and regular bullets but Luffy took all the ammunition he had and bounced it back causing severe damage to the mast and sails in the process.

"Rubber High Caliber Pistol!" Luffy swung his fist with all his might at Ganzack and managed to hit Ganzack in the face.

Ganzack wiped a bit of blood and saliva from his mouth and used the claws of his armor to block a second hit while he momentarily recovered.

Then with a twist of his arm a bright pink thread shot out from one of the openings of his armor and wrapped tightly around Luffy, preventing him from moving. The crab like claws on his armor changed from blunt edged to as sharp as one of Zoro's swords and Ganzack said, "I'll slice you into mincemeat and throw your remains overboard. No one can help you now!"

Medaka gritted her teeth from where she had been waiting and made her move.

"Goodbye!" Ganzack swung his claw right at Luffy's exposed neck - intending to take his head and his stupid hat. There was a sudden scurry and Luffy could do nothing but gape when Medaka jumped in front of him to take the hit.

There was a sickening screech of metal on metal and Medaka hit the deck ten feet away from him while the helmet rolled another five feet. Something red pooled in front of the armor and Medaka didn't get back up.

Luffy felt something weird in his body as he watched this happen while still bound up. It felt like he couldn't hear too good any more. It felt like time was sticking to itself and moving too slowly. His next heartbeat felt like it stung a little. Shanks had lost his arm and saved his life ten years ago - was he really so weak that he needed another red haired savior to lose their life in order to help him?

"Oh? What a shame. I don't understand how she could've been important to Herring in the first place. She only ever caused problems and was always tracking sand into the house. Even in her death she's giving me a mess to clean up." There was no remorse in his voice. Just spite.

Something hot and angry bubbled into Luffy's blood and with a blisteringly furious glare he didn't even speak for once. He hunched over and strained himself harder than he ever had done since his journey began and began to stretch.

The pink glowing ribbon, sticky and unbreakable, bulged out from his sides as he inhaled - and kept inhaling. The light of the thread began to flicker.

With a sound that might have been a roar he pushed out his arms and the threads snapped like they had been nothing but cooked spaghetti noodles.

"How dare you mock her! Bastard! Rubber Mallet!"

Luffy stretched out his arms while twisting them, and grabbed Ganzack by his throat. Ganzack had just enough time to regret running his mouth before Luffy lifted him up into the air and then untwisted his arms, rapidly spinning Ganzack, before crashing him hard into to the deck of his ship.

Ganzack's leg twitched once and then became still as Luffy took deep breaths in order to try to calm his inflamed emotions more. He regretted that the fight had been over so soon because he still wanted to hit Ganzack again. The sound of clapping however caused him to turn his head.

Medaka, now standing with the helmet knocked off from her shoulders, was enthusiastically applauding Luffy's work. The armor had been a little big for her so she had very fortunately only lost the helmet and not her head along with it. Her red hair was shiny, a little bit curly and fluttering a bit in the sea wind.

"You did it, Captain Luffy! You're amazing!" Medaka said with a bright and excited smile.

Luffy was at first stunned but she was alive and that was what mattered right? Luffy smiled back at her and nodded.

There was a distant roar and the ship shook causing both Luffy and Medaka to stumble a bit before they watched in awe at the sky shatter and fall away above them. The ship shook again and there was another, closer roar as an extremely cut up and beat up sea monster lifted its head out of the water and hissed angrily at Luffy and Medaka.

Luffy, just as calm as the shore prior to a tsunami, spoke candidly to the sea monster, "If you're like Balloon you can understand me. You're going to take this ship, this crew and this jerk to the furthest place away from this island as you can get get or else I'll eat you."

The sea monster gulped sensing the Truth packed in Luffy's words. It would do as this person requested.

---

Up in the sky Ann took a feather as a focus and using all of the power she had remaining pouring into it she said, "Turn this barrier back into the sea, absorb it into the rocks and into the trees, send this barrier far away from me. With my familiar in support of me - Make it Be."

She pointed the feather into the air and a spear of black-and-white light shot up into the sky above themselves and the island. An instant later, there was a blinding flash, like sheet-lightning, and a huge wall of black and white flames branched out from where the lance touched the sky and spread rapidly outwards and down into the sea, leaving a ring of smoke to float more slowly after it. What looked like cracks in glass spread over the sky and shattered away without a trace.

The barrier had been huge and had been built over the course of six months, getting stronger each day and even with Balloon's support Ann felt darkness encroaching at the edges of her vision. Balloon only had time for a quick landing before both he and Ann passed out in the middle of town. Zoro was quick to stand guard over their fallen forms as the townsfolk cautiously approached them and came back to their senses.

"Is Ganzack…?" The first few seemed a bit confused.

"What's going on? Why do I feel so...odd?" They looked like people waking up suddenly in the middle of sleepwalking.

"Pirates! We were attacked by pirates!" A voice called out and suddenly people were rushing about checking on each other.

"Pirates! There are pirates laying around everywhere in town and out of town! Tie them up! Tie them up quick before they recover!"

"Someone call the marines! There's so many pirates! Wait - these folks are the ones who knocked them out!"

"It's Roronoa Zoro! His bounty hunter gang saved us!" the mayor said, sounding excited.

"Sorry, you're mistaken," Zoro said as he shook his head, "I never called myself a bounty hunter, it was just something I did in order to get food to eat while focusing on my true goal. Oh and I don't have a bounty hunting gang. I'm a pirate. My captain stopped our ship outside this island to go fishing and Ganzack attacked us."

"We were saved from pirates by other pirates…?" the mayor seemed baffled and rubbed the top of his head in confusion, "This sounds like a story that ruffian Medaka would enjoy. Well regardless of the circumstances you have my thanks."

After Ganzack's men were gathered up and taken to their ship which was then pulled along by a sea monster the people in town were quick to clean up and begin a party commissioned by the mayor to celebrate and thank the Straw Hats for getting rid of Ganzack and his men as well as for Medaka, who had helped in her own way all alone for months. Right before the party began the mayor pulled Medaka aside and apologized to her for how his grandsons acted towards her.

"I'm sorry you had to go so long without help from us. You weren't born here but I'm glad Herring and you made this place your home."

"He kidnapped me away from Ganzack when I was a baby," Medaka confessed, startling the mayor, "That's why Ganzack came after my...dad. I don't consider Ganzack my father though. I'll be a toymaker like my dad was and build only nice things - I promise. Just don't make me live alone anymore, please."

The mayor was silent for a while before he said, "Well I'm an old man now but Herring was a good man. I should have enough room for you to stay with me. I know my grandsons Geel and Iaana can be mean to you so I'll talk to them and in order to set them straight on their manners and if they can't be friends to just leave you alone."

"No!" Medaka said in alarm and then stopped and spoke again, "I mean... those two are the only kids who talk to me. Even if they are a little mean I still don't want them to be kept away. I don't have any friends."

"I don't know... this Luffy fellow sounds like he's pretty friendly even though he's a pirate. You don't have to tolerate cruelty for companionship, Medaka. Have fun at the party, no curfew tonight."

The mayor and her probable new guardian left and Medaka paused for a moment looking between the crowd of kids who were gathering together in order to celebrate and the three people and two bird pirate group. Luffy did know some fun pirate songs but she had been pretty bossy to him today.

Luffy looked up and waved her over, "Medaka! Come on! Let's eat together already!"

The party lasted for hours, long into the night.

"When do you and your crew plan to leave this island, young man?" The mayor inquired, having made his way over to Luffy during a brief intermission between finishing his twelfth helping of picanha and waiting for his thirteenth to be brought out. It was long past curfew for most of the kids but the adults were still celebrating their new freedom from the wicked pirates.

"After my ship Dawn is fixed," Luffy said with a grin as he expertly ignored the local butcher who seemed to be giving him a stink eye. His eyes were only on the meat waiters who were making their way around the party with their knives and a skewers (and their meat).

The mayor seemed worried and he asked, "Was your ship destroyed by Ganzack then? I wasn't aware. We of course can provide you with a boat if you need one to leave our island."

"No, don't need one," Luffy said before pointing up at the green bird perched on his straw hat, "Dawn will take care of it. She'll be ready to sail again in the morning, right Dawnie?"

"That's right. I should be finished a little bit after sunrise so enjoy the party some more. I'll take up your offer on a boat though, Mr. Mayor - I don't want to waste energy finishing one up if I don't have to. Just moor it to the dock and I'll fetch it later."

The mayor seemed mystified by her request but nodded his agreement anyway. "Of course. Anything to get you going as soon as possible. I'll even fill it with some dry provisions. Oh look - the waiter came back. I'm off to arrange that boat your bird wants."

Luffy excitedly waived the waiter down and got started on his thirteenth serving - which may have been the best tasting serving yet! The lure fluttered away from Luffy several feet away to where Zoro was matching Luffy's consumption rate and total volume only with the source being sake instead of meat. Ann sat opposite him and was a medium between Luffy and Zoro, eating and drinking nearly as quickly as them but much more politely and slowly, being only on her seventh serving. She needed to build up her energy from using so much magic again and was less self conscious now about eating so much in order to replenish it instead of sleeping it off like she had previously done.

Medaka was in the middle of petting the (incredibly soft) feathers of Balloon while she excitedly chatted with the whole crew, "You're really chasing your dreams and are all so strong. I've always wanted to go out to sea, you know! I'd go anywhere the wind was blowing, sailing for adventure out on the deep blue sea."

Somehow Medaka's comment seemed to spur both Luffy and Dawn to sing (off key but enthusiastically) and Zoro, not having heard the song before simply was amused when Ann and Balloon joined in (Balloon somehow sounding better than both Luffy and Dawn despite being unable to speak).

"~Hey ho we'll go ~Anywhere the wind is blowing ~Hoist the sails and sing ~Sailing for adventure on the deep blue sea ~We'll chase our dreams standing on our own ~Over the horizon to the great unknown~"

Medaka got up to grab some more juice from the counter and seeing the mayor was huddled close to his buddies in the town council quietly snuck over in order to listen to their conversation out of habit.

The mayor's voice made her freeze when she heard the discussion involved her father though.

"-will by no means clear her bloodline of being guilty of piracy. The curse of her father is obviously going to carry over onto his child. Our best plan after this will allow her to stay here on the island only if she never comes into town. I don't want her cursing my grandchildren and I'm certain you don't want anyone with a curse to be involved with your own children."

There were some murmurs of agreement but Medaka had heard enough. She got her juice and stood still for a moment in order to watch Luffy and his crew having a great time, singing and merry making as they enjoyed the banquet. She sighed to herself and after speaking softly to Ann walked out the town hall and back towards her house.

It was time for her to go home.

---

A little after the sun rose the next morning Luffy hustled Ann, Zoro and Balloon out of the Town Hall as he followed the sparrow lure Dawn had made to bring them to the dock. Ann was nursing a hangover and Zoro was just tired. As soon as he could manage it he would be taking a nap up on Dawn's deck. As they walked Dawn chatted excitedly to them.

"Ready to get going? I moved from the shore where I made landfall over to the town dock. I'll look a little different thanks to my alterations but you should be able to recognise me," Dawn said as she flew over the top of Zoro's head and fluttered teasingly around Ann and Balloon.

"Yeah. It's time to go." Luffy said and pouted, "Too bad there's no leftovers for us to bring along from the party."

"Knowing you there never will be leftovers after a party," Dawn said with a twittering laugh, "Where'd Medaka go? I thought she might want to say goodbye before we leave."

"She said she was going home around midnight," Ann answered, "I think she was getting tired."

"I don't think she's the type to cry over saying goodbye," Zoro said, "The kid seemed more like an angry crier than a sad crier to me."

"We're here! Take a look at me! How do you like my makeover?" Dawn said with an excited laugh as her lure flew onto the ship and merged into the hull seamlessly,

Luffy laughed with delight upon seeing Dawn's newest appearance. She still had a figurehead that now resembled some sort for feathered dragon instead of its previous scaled dragon appearance. Her main sails were now a creamy white and seemed to be begging for a pirate emblem to be painted onto it. Her hull was still a rich green but on her starboard side a gold colored mark that resembled a lightning strike went from the top of the rail to somewhere below the water line. She had enlarged from a thirty foot boat with only room for a little bit of deck space up to a sixty foot long fully equipped ship.

"Wow Dawn, You look great!" Ann said feeling amazed over the changes Dawn had somehow done over the course of one night. It was enough to make her completely forget about her slight hangover.

Zoro eyed the lightning strike mark and nodded in agreement, "Do you choose the scars you want to keep?"

The ship flapped her sails in the living ship equivalent of a shrug before saying, "Kind of. The scars will show as either a different type of wood or some kind of metal but I can pick which material to use. I decided bronze would look neat so I primarily used that. I have space for everyone to live more comfortably on board now. Come aboard and take a look around."

Luffy was already on board before Zoro, Ann and Balloon could even come up the dock. The two humans shortly joined Luffy in taking a look around the 'new' ship. Though her hull was green the rest of the wood on the deck and masts was a rich warm cedar brown with shining brass metalwork and facenings. The main deck was just a little bit longer than the forecastle and poop combined. The railing on Dawn was now about a meter high but seemed to be hollowed out in different areas in order to make space for rich soil in order to start growing out plants.

The main mast came up from amidship and had two square hatches fore and aft that lead down to the lower deck. These hatches could be kept open in order to allow light and fresh air into the lower deck (in bad weather they would likely be kept shut). On one side of the main deck, just aft of the forecastle, there was a lifeless ten foot long boat, while the other side had a combination bird house and coop where Balloon and the chickens could roost where Mango-Tango and Very-Berry were already settled in. It conveniently had a latch that Balloon could use to open or shut in order to go in and out with only his beak. There was a fighting top and crows nest on top of the main mast just above the large main sail.

On the poop deck was a wheeled helm and benches built into the railing for people to keep whoever was manning the helm company if there wasn't work or play to be done. Behind that was Dawn's tail, the carved counterpart to the head at the front of the ship. Within the tail was a short cushioned bench for people to sit and look out the long, narrow windows both port and starboard side. Up on the forecastle there was a shorter foremast which had two smaller triangular sails that were colored rich purple and creamy yellow.

Underneath the forecastle was the galley. The galley had an oven with a range on top of it along with a deep sink on one side and many shelves filled with pans, pots and cooking utensils opposite to the sink. On the far side of the sink, away from the oven was a both a pull out icebox (not yet filled with any food or drinks) and a refrigerator with a combination lock on the handle. Everything necessary in a floating kitchen is there including the rations the townsfolk had provided in the ten foot boat but it was otherwise empty of any other food. Though the galley took up the most room there were also four smaller cabins for a rudimentary first aid clinic, the head, a shower stall, and a workshop.

Beneath the poop deck were the two new crew quarters instead of one large single captain's quarters. The cabins both had square windows that could be opened and the walls were warm brown and had green vines blooming with real flowers that freshened the air and were very vibrant. Each cabin had three windows that looked out to the blue water along with low hanging cushioned futons to be placed where desired and each cabin had enough room for five or so people to stay in. The crew's 'treasure chest' was in the middle of the port side cabin.

The lower deck of Dawn could be accessed from one of two hatches in the main deck. The bulk of the lower deck seemed to be taken up by the crew's common area, where the crew could relax, eat, work out, or if necessary row during times of little or no wind. There were storage chests that also acted as benches on either side of the ship containing supplies, blankets, oars and were otherwise currently empty. There were portholes on either side of the ship, one for each chest, where long oars could be extended from the ship.

Running down the center of the lower deck, in between the benches, was the cargo pit. It was an open area that ran almost all the way down to Dawn's keel. In there could be kept all manner of non-perishable foods and supplies. She had some sort of bronze filtration system that had the appearance of winding branches that could pipe fresh water to and from the galley and the head.

At the aft of and slightly below the lower deck was a low cabin that could be used as guest quarters or a very comfortable brig in a pinch. There were several low, thick round windows in this cabin, designed to be at or below the water line and thus needed to remain closed.

Having thoroughly been explored Balloon settled up on top of the crows nest, making himself a comfortable seat. Ann checked on the bird house and was amused to see that both Very-Berry and Mango-Tango seemed to be pleased with their new 'cabin' and were playing with each other in their upgraded accommodations. Zoro wandered on the main deck for a little bit and was satisfied that there seemed to be more than enough room for him to train or maneuver in a fight if it were necessary.

It was only Luffy and Dawn who noticed a small figure approaching the dock while looking at the new ship with interest. The curly red hair indicated from a distance that it was Medaka. She was wearing a mismatch of both the castle and pirate mannequin's clothing from her home which resulted in a lot of bright mismatched colors and layers. In addition to the clothes she also was wearing a belt that holstered the pair of pistols she had been using in the fight the day before, a leather pouch busting at the seems but cinched shut, and a pair of sturdy but comfortable looking deck shoes. She was also carrying a oilskin bag nearly as big as she was filled up to the brim over her shoulder. Despite her departure from her previously knightly appearance Luffy called out a cheery good morning.

"Medaka! Did you come to see us off?" Luffy asked.

There was a stubborn expression on her face as she called up, "Luffy! Let me join your crew!"

"What? The kid wants to join?" Zoro asked out loud and Ann exited the birdhouse in order to look over the railing in concern.

"Eh? Why?" Luffy asked before suddenly remembering that her dad wouldn't be around to watch her any more. Weren't the townspeople going to take her in after all she had gone through in order to rid the island of pirates and find her dad? Especially after they had thrown them such a nice party for kicking Ganzack off their island.

Medaka fidgeted nervously for a moment and spoke again, "Everyone in town knows I'm the daughter of a pirate now and since I'm too rough with their kids they said I need to look after myself now. I could do that fine but I'd rather have some people to be with. I don't want to be alone anymore and being a pirate is in my blood! I've always wanted to be a pirate but I don't want to be a bad pirate like my father was - I'd rather be a pirate like you. I'll work hard to be a good pirate apprentice, so please take me with you!"

Luffy seemed to be deciding what to do and while Zoro decided he wouldn't mind having the kid around (considering she seemed to be pretty resilient) Ann decided she needed to voice her own concern.

"You aren't trying to run away are you?" Ann asked cautiously, "Luffy wants to be the Pirate King and it will be very dangerous to be with us - especially once we get to the Grand Line. You'd be safe on this island."

"Please take her."

Luffy didn't want to believe what he was seeing, but sure enough the town mayor had appeared on the dock, standing behind Medaka while giving her a cold stare, "We, the people of this town and island, want nothing to do with Medaka. We'll even pay you pirates to take Medaka as incentive if you wish."

Medaka scowled fiercely and averted her eyes away from watching Luffy (and to keep him from seeing how hurt she was over the people of her island rejecting her.)

"I refuse." Luffy said and Medaka closed her eyes. She wouldn't cry - she knew there was a chance that Luffy wouldn't take her when she asked. She wasn't good enough for her own father so why would some people she'd only known for less than a day want her to be with them?

The feeling of an arm winding around her waist and a hand grabbing onto her shoulder caused her eyes to pop back open but she was airborne and at Luffy's side before she could do anything other than yelp in alarm. She looked up and saw that Luffy was looking at the mayor with a similar glare (but not exact) of anger that he had often shot towards Ganzack and said, "I refuse to take any of your stupid money because she's worth more than anything you could pay anyway."

Medaka startled when Ann placed her own hand on her shoulder and with her own glare at the mayor said, "Anyone willing to sell a child to anyone deserves much worse than a pirate invasion."

"You won't be getting the kid back." Zoro agreed as he placed a hand on Wado Ichimonji and sent his own glare towards the mayor. The kid was part of the crew now, he definitely would start improving her fighting skills as soon as possible or else she might get crazy ideas like Kuina did for a short time about 'girls become weak when they grow up'.

"Let's go, Dawn. We won't ever return to this island again," Luffy ordered as he turned away from the mayor - he didn't even want to look at him anymore. Since he'd shared meat with Luffy the night before he though the mayor was a good guy and Luffy did not like being wrong about someone. With Dawn's anchor weighed and without any delay though with some unnecessary but welcomed work from the crew Dawn adjusted her sails and the straw hat pirates left the little island without looking back.

Medaka was covering her eyes so no one could see her cry but Luffy picked up on it instantly, "Ah! Medaka! You might be a kid but so was Shanks when he started and I bet you'll be a better apprentice than he ever was because your my apprentice. So don't cry now! The straw hat pirates official cabin girl isn't a crybaby, is she?"

Medaka ineffectually punched Luffy in his chest and shouted, "Shut up, you stupid captain! I ain't crying. I just got seawater in my eyes!"

"An apprentice, huh?" Zoro said with a teasing smile, "I'll show you using a sword properly isn't just about pointing the sharp end at the other person."

"I'll teach you how to sail properly," Dawn said causing Medaka to yelp in alarm - she hadn't actually thought that Luffy actually had a living ship, she still had thought he had just been telling a story.

"And I'll show you how to keep an eye out for trouble and how to get out of dangerous situations," Ann said with excitement before bending closer to whisper, "and if you turn out to have any magic I can help you learn how to use it properly and safely."

"Well I'm gonna teach you how to eat, fight and how be a great pirate!" Luffy said pumping his fists into the air, "And how to play real pirate games! Come on! I want to show you our treasure chest! We'll have a pirate party to celebrate you joining the crew!"

Luffy reached his hand out to Medaka and with an exuberant laugh pulled her over in the direction of the cabins and Medaka echoed it with her own laugh filled with a mixture of relief and excitement. Being with these people was sure going to be interesting.

Meanwhile back on the island a different celebration was beginning to take shape.

"Are you sure this was the right way to get her to go?" the barkeeper asked as the mayor made his way back to the bar where the town council had gathered in the early morning to complete their plans for getting Medaka to go with the pirates.

"If we didn't make sure to do something like this they might have left her behind," the mayor said with regret.

"Wouldn't that have been fine?" the butcher asked again feeling a bit mopey over all the meat that had been used for the party, but was glad in the end that the pirate occupation of their island was now over for good.

The mayor sat at the counter with a grunt and said, "She would have been safe here...but she wouldn't have been happy. I'm happy just knowing she's with people who will protect her and give her the adventurous life she's craved all the years she's lived here. Our kids don't have the grit for a pirate's life but Medaka does. Medaka may be a ruffian but Medaka isn't stupid, after all."

The barkeeper nodded and said, "Even if she never returns I'll be sure to keep a look at any news about these Straw Hat pirates. They'll be famous one day, I'm sure of it. Come on, let's have a sunrise toast to the Straw Hats!"

"Cheers!" The town council called out as they clinked their drinks together.

To be continued…

Up next: Does anyone know how to get anywhere on this crew? In honor of Camille Saint-Saëns this writer is proud to present an island with a real carnival of animals feeling to it.

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Thank you for your patience those who have been following this story. It is greatly appreciated and I am having a good time with this so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it! To those who celebrate have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope your future is bright! I'll post again as soon as I get the next chapter done.