*Thanks for all who have been reading and reviewing! I hope you are all enjoying!

You know why I hate you, Luffy.

You know why, and you couldn't ever forget.

I'll make you plead. Make you wish you'd never been alive, and then we'll see who's laughing last!

He who laughs last

laughs longest.


The tents where we were taken to stay were far into the maze of alleyways and canvas that made up the Circus Avalon. The tent was about half as large as the Merry's hull and squat, low enough that it didn't stand out at all from the tapestry of brightly colored fabric around it. The Clockwork Children showed us to the doorway and then vanished as seamlessly as the Bell-Viper had.

The island had grown hot as the sun became fiercer, and all of us went into the shade of the pavilion with relief. Inside was a world of crimson and gold, emerald and cream. Whoever had designed the tent had paid attention to the way the light would look falling through the fabric, and had commanded the color of the tent so expertly that the words Circus Avalon were spelled out in blue and yellow on the floor of the tent when we walked in. Though the floor was dirt, there were ornate rugs covering most of the space, and couches and chairs with decorated upholstery were scattered casually around the tent. Around its edges were nine curtained spaces, each with a bed, a small desk, and a hanging lamp inside, like bedrooms. Each was a different color, and with light falling through their tops looked like pieces of a kaleidoscope. Looking up, it was easy to see the tent's support structure, among which hung a trapeze and a high-wire, no doubt for performers to practice. A space in the tent's center had been cleared and there was a large table, around which were nine chairs and in the center of which was an immaculately colored map of the island, with a small red x marking where the tent was.

It was magical, like stepping into an entirely new world. I was becoming more and more fascinated with the island as hours ticked by, and I found myself succumbing now and again to just hearing the melody of the calliope and staying still.

I thought for the first time that day of the gate, and how it had swung open so prophetically to allow our entrance. That thought made me pause, think back to the Merry and how we had suffered the strange storms and currents. There was something else, too…a warning? Had someone told me to be careful? I shook my head to clear it. A loud buzzing had begun in my ears the second I had contemplated danger on the Circus Avalon. My mouth went dry, and immediately I turned my thoughts to other things, to how the music from the circus emanated soft and seductive from everywhere around us, how remarkable a feat that was, and the buzzing stopped.

The rest of the crew were already looking around the tent. Nami was drawn instantly to the table, where the map sat. Zoro dropped his swords outside the nearest bed-chamber, plopped down on soft purple cushions, and fell immediately asleep. Luffy made a running dash for the center pole and started to wrap his arms around it to climb it. He made it about halfway up before the whole pole began listing to one side, nearly taking the tent with it. Luffy laughed loudly, rocking the pole back and forth with his body weight.

"Get down from there, you dumbass!" Ussop said up to him, taking a rock from the dirt floor of the tent and throwing it with such accuracy that our captain was knocked from the pole into the dirt, flat on his ass.

"Ussop!" He said, straightening, his arms crossed. "You're no fun!" He turned to me. "Robin, can we go exploring now?" He asked, deferring to me, as always, in situations where logic was necessary.

"No, we have to wait for the Bell-Viper to come back," I said, moving across the tent to a room colored entirely silver and black. I dropped the small bag of supplies I had been carrying and sat down on the bed, suddenly exhausted.

Luffy pulled his hat down farther on his head in defiance. "I don't want to wait, Robin! What if the Bell-Viper is lost, we should go look for him!"

Luffy made as if to run out of the tent, but I conjured two extra hands, grabbing onto his ankles so he tripped. "No," I said. "Captain-san, this island could be dangerous. You wouldn't want to get hurt, would you?"

"Robin, don't be silly," he said, trying to untangle my disembodied fingers from his foot. "I never get hurt!"

Chopper laughed at that, as sarcastically as he could. "Luffy, you bring getting hurt to a whole new level," he said, turning from the perch he had found on a chair beside Nami. He paused for a second, looking thoughtful. "Do you think they have cotton candy here? I'm hungry."

The mention of food clearly sent Luffy over some sort of edge. Immediately, he began jumping up and down, his jaw working as if he were already chewing. "Yes, yes, yes! We need food!" He ran in circles. Nami rolled her eyes and kept looking at the map, while I regarded our captain with a smile. The thought of food had set my stomach rumbling, too.

Ussop and Franky had stood from their own rooms and come to stand by our captain, clearly almost as excited as he was about the prospect of something to eat. "It might not be a bad idea to have some of us go out and look around," Ussop said. "Just to see if there's anything to eat around here."

I stood immediately, walking to Nami's side as she began to argue. Luffy, meanwhile, was growing more and more impatient, continuing to run in circles and dramatically miming his own death at the prospect of going hungry for another minute. We stood around the table, looking at the map that Nami was doing her best to figure out, while Chopper and Luffy salivated over the long list of carnival foods they were desperate to find.

At the mention of funnel cakes, something in Luffy snapped and, despite my warnings, he picked up his hat from the table and made to rush out. Just as he was about to exit, though, a figure appeared in the doorway.

She was small, probably half a head shorter than Nami, and absolutely gorgeous. She had gold hair that bounced in the way you see on television but never in actuality, and large, smooth green eyes cupped by perfectly round, perfectly red cheeks. Her body was small and fit, a dancer's, but her waist was still impossibly small, her hips and breasts curving smoothly out to form a perfect hourglass. She wore an incredibly short sequined pink dress, white gloves, and ankle-high white boots. Around her long, slender neck was a short chain with a huge pink diamond glistering at her throat. "Oh!" she said, clearly startled by nearly running into Luffy. "I'm very sorry I didn't mean to—are you alright?" she said, turning to look at Sanji. The crew, used to Sanji's romantic tendencies, had not even turned when his nose had started bleeding so fiercely he fell to the ground, turning steadily pale.

"He's fine," Nami said, pushing her way to the front. I saw her eyes flick over the girl. She crossed her arms and for the first time in memory I saw Nami's self-consciousness in the face of another person. She knew her dirty T-Shirt and shorts and messy braid were nothing to this rose-pink beauty standing before us. "Who are you?"

The girl looked genuinely surprised at Nami's hostility, as did the men on the crew. Nami was only hostile when someone owed her money. Or a drink. Under Nami's hard, dark gaze, the girl quelled a little, like a bird shrinking from a cat. "My name's—"

"Nila!" Came a familiar voice from outside. The Bell-Viper trotted up behind the girl, meeting her in the entrance of our tent. He had shed his crimson and purple clothes from the morning in favor of a sea-blue vest and crisp, black pants. His tophat, though, remained unchanged and sat askew on his head. "I was wondering where you'd gotten to." The Viper turned to us. "Well, Straw Hat Pirates, I see you have met Nila."

"Yes, we have," came Nami's clipped reply while the rest of us nodded.

The Viper considered Nami with a little smile, almost pitying. "She's a tightrope artist here at the Circus Avalon." He clapped his hand around Nila's shoulders. "I sent her to meet you. She'll accompany us on your tour. I think she knows the circus better than even I do!"

Nila looked at the Bell-Viper coyly, her shoulders hunching a little as she laughed. "No one knows the circus like you, ringmaster!" She teased. Her laugh was almost sickeningly sweet, almost sticky. The attraction between Nila and the Bell-Viper was clearly visible in both of their porcelain faces.

Nami rolled her eyes and took a few steps back towards the table with the map. "Can we go now?" She asked.

"We're hungry!" Luffy said, his eyes wide and a little glassed. He'd gone a full morning without eating anything, and clearly he was not going to have any more of it.

The Bell-Viper clapped his hands and clicked his heels together, as he'd done before, to get our attention. "Very well, then. We'll be off to the gypsy market first, I suppose. If you'd care to wake your swordsman, we can go."

I'd forgotten Zoro sleeping behind us. Turning, we saw him sprawled impossibly across the bed, snoring. Nami, now more irked than ever, walked over and smacked him on the head. "Get up, asshat. We're leaving." Before the man could react, she'd stomped her way back across the tent.

Zoro sat up instantly and, throwing himself to the ground, began furiously doing sit-ups. We all stared at him, waiting for him to get his bearings. After a few seconds, he stopped, turning to look at us. Embarrassed, he stood, clearing his throat and fetching his katana from where he'd laid them by his bed. "Well, let's go," he said awkwardly, pulling his shoes on as he walked towards us.

Tripping on a rock, he stumbled, but managed to save himself from falling, taking a few clumsy steps. When he looked up, it was right into Nila's face.

Her intake of breath was instantaneous. Looking into Zoro's eyes always evoked emotion in the onlooker, but not usually so dramatic. He froze, looking her up and down. Bent over as he was, she was almost his height. But when he straightened and leaned back on his heels, he towered over her. "Who the hell are you?" he asked, hand resting, as always, on the hilt of his sword.

The girl quivered a response, "I'm…Nila," she said.

Zoro raised an eyebrow, confused by her hesitation. "Well hi." He sighed angrily, turning to the Bell-Viper. "You're back," he said, harshly.

The Viper looked at him with the same challenging stare they'd shared before, one that said I'm stronger than you, in unspoken tones. "Yes, of course, master swordsman. Nila and I will show you and your crew the island now, if you'd care to join us."

He looked at Nami. "Food?" he asked.

"Yes," she replied, moving a step closer to him, leaning on one hip.

I watched Nila shoot her a quietly venomous gaze and half-smiled. I could already sense the ripples of what I was sure would be a very interesting stay on the Circus Avalon beginning.

"Then I'm in," Zoro said.

The Bell-Viper nodded, turned, and walked out of the tent without another word. As I exited the tent, I turned to look at the floor, where the light lay, quietly spelling Circus Avalon in spiraling letters.


Come on in the water's fine

if you forget to feel cold.

I'll keep you warm, Luffy

and then I'll let you drown.


It was evident that the gypsy village was neither Nila nor the Bell-Viper's home. The people there had wooden caravans and strange, carpet-sided tents that opened into shop-fronts. The Bell-Viper told us they were the closest settlement to the beach, and parts of their village spilled onto the sand. Fishermen dared trips to the coral reefs offshore, where the water was so clear blue and shallow you could see oddly shaped sharks and gigantic, bat-like rays swimming just underfoot among schools of jewel-bright fish and shrimp.

The people there were strange, unlike any we'd seen in our travels. Their skin was dark olive, sometimes actually greenish, and their hair was dark and wild. It was evident that most of the women never cut their hair, and many girls my age sported long, wildly curling locks held away from their faces with gorgeous barrettes and combs in colors that I could tell had some significance. The men kept their hair short, out of their eyes, to make hunting and working easy. All of them carried a sense of wild melancholy about them, like they had sprung from an old fairytale where monsters haunted the shores and demons strayed wise and free across the shores.

Their clothes bespoke a civilization that thrived in heat, with the girls in loose, flowing skirts and low-cut white blouses, while very few men bothered with shirts, wearing knee-length trousers held up by rope belts. Every one of them wore some kind of jewelry. Women sported dozens of necklaces while men wore bracelets far up their arms, some to the elbow.

As we entered the market, some bowed to the Bell-Viper or nodded silent heads at him before returning to mending fishing nets or clothes. The children in the vicinity called to their friends and flocked around Nila, who leaned down and spoke to them, pulling a deck of cards from somewhere in her skimpy excuse for a dress in the beginning of a magic trick. I looked around, enthralled by the people and their lifestyle, for which I could only get a taste. Somehow it reminded me of Ohara.

Sanji, beside me and still sporting stains from his episode with Nila earlier, caught the eye of a beautiful gypsy girl and winked. She smiled back at him, revealing teeth sharp as the Bell-Viper's behind her perfect lips. Sanji started, and I jumped as well. Turning my head, I looked at a gypsy who was conversing with the Bell-Viper and noticed that he had the same teeth. They all did, even the tiny children. It made me shiver, though I didn't know why.

The Bell-Viper turned to us, motioning for Nila to come to his side with a wave of the wrist and a snap. She obeyed, leaving her crowd of admirers. "Straw Hat Pirates," he said. "You may trade goods here for food. The gypsies deal in oddities, they love things they don't understand."

I turned to a little boy who was staring, entranced, at the earrings I wore. His eyes were big as moons, but when he caught me staring he jumped back, running off to play with other children.

Though the gypsy market stretched at least half a mile down the beach, the Bell-Viper told us that we'd find the best food on the main thoroughfare. He told us to meet him in an hour, and to enjoy ourselves. We split into groups, on instinct. I walked with Franky, Brook, Zoro, and Nami. Following Zoro's keen sense of smell (spurred, I'm sure, by the ravenous appetite we were all feeling by now), we wandered farther down the street to one of the last booths before the sea. The woman tending it had four or five small children scattered around her. They were playing some sort of game with a stick and ball in a circle on the dirt at their mother's feet. The woman herself was stringing together exquisite glass beads to form a skirt. She was hunched over her work and did not notice our coming until Franky cleared his throat.

The woman looked up, as did her oldest son. Immediately, her dark face alit in a wide smile. "Travelers!" she said excitedly, looping the thread of her needle into a pincushion and standing. "Welcome to the Circus Avalon!"

"Thank you," Brook said.

The woman considered him intently. "A walking dead man? You'd fetch a pretty penny at someone's marketplace. I've not seen one like you in years."

The four of us exchanged glances. As far as any of us knew, there was only one talking, walking skeleton in the whole of the Grand Line, and he was standing with us.

Brook straightened his shirt's collar. I spoke up, leaning closer to the woman. "Madame, do you mean to say you've seen one of my friend's crew-mates? He lost them a long time ago."

The tale elicited a smile in response. "That was decades ago, love. But I won't forget!" I noticed for the first time that one of the dozen necklaces she wore around her throat was made entirely from human teeth. The gypsy market hummed and buzzed around us, but in that moment, everything was quiet.

The woman's son, a boy of perhaps twelve, spoke up. "Have you come to trade for food?" He asked.

He was small for his age, with cunning eyes and sharp teeth like the rest of his clan. His hands were long, fingers splayed across his mother's counter. There was a small scar across his lips and cheek, jagged.

I smiled, setting down the bag I carried. "Yes," I replied. "We've come to trade."

The boy looked at his mother and she nodded at him. "You know how to trade, Otter, go ahead." There was a mother's light of pride in the wrinkled, slightly menacing face.

The boy set his jaw and turned to look at us. "My mother and I deal in stories and pictures. In exchange for one story we've never heard, we'll feed you some of our stew." He gestured at a bubbling pot beside his mother. The smell of spices from the yellow mixture made me remember how hungry I was.

My companions and I looked at each other, all smiling. We had more stories than the boy had hairs on his head. "So," Franky said, "which one do we tell him?"

Brook cocked his head to the side. "Alabasta?"

Franky and Zoro shook their heads. "Too long," Zoro said.

"The fall of CP9?" I suggested, details from our time in Water 7 flashing back through my thoughts.

"No," Zoro said. "I think a short, sad story would be best. I'm starving."

Instantly, I knew what story he had chosen. My heart broke for him and his lost friend, the girl who had spurred his greatest dream by leaving him alone.

Zoro stepped up to the counter, taking one of his swords and laying it on the table.

"Do you have your story?" The boy called Otter asked. Zoro nodded, and the boy beamed, reaching under the counter for something. What he produced was a strange, shallow gold bowl, into which he poured seawater from a crystal decanter. Before we could ask the machine's function, he explained. "It's called a Veritometer. It measures how true your story is. If the water turns red, or starts to evaporate it means you're lying." In the machine, it was clear that old pieces of the gypsy culture were still alive. The Veritometer had the feel of something very old and respected.

Zoro nodded, his face already solemn. "Well, nothing I'm about to tell you is a lie." He gestured to the katana on the table. "This sword once belonged to a wind spirit," he told the boy. "Her name was Kuina, and she was the most beautiful girl in the whole world. She could use a sword better than any man or woman on earth!"

The boy, clearly fascinated, looked down at the Veritometer. The water hadn't even quivered.

"One day, she and I met on a small bridge where I used to go to practice my fighting. Kuina challenged me to a fight." He laughed under his breath a little. "I was young and very stupid, and I thought I could beat her. After a duel more challenging than any I had ever fought, I thought I had Kuina pinned. But just when I was about to call time, to lower my sword in the traditional sign of victory, she caught me by surprise and won the duel." Zoro paused, putting his hand on the sword. "I was so angry that I didn't go home for three days, just practiced and practiced in the dojo, until I could beat even my master. But no matter how many times we fought, Kuina always won.

Eventually, I accepted the fact that she was better than me, and I let her teach me. We became best friends and fought together every chance we got. She was amazing, talented to a ridiculous degree, and she beat me every time. But I never stopped trying, determined to show her that I wouldn't give up just because someone was better than I was. That was how I first learned the cardinal rule of being a swordsman: Always honor those who defeat you above anyone else because they're the ones who can actually teach you something."

Zoro took a long pause. "I came to love Kuina very much, and we talked often of traveling together, of spending our lives training and training, fighting where all the old masters from the stories my teacher told me did. But where I come from, girls weren't supposed to fight. So when Kuina turned thirteen, her mother wanted to make her give up fighting altogether. Kuina made me swear to her that I would keep fighting, that I would help her train in secret, that one day one of us would be the best swordsman in the entire world. I kept my promise, and we trained in secret together, both of us improving. Now I'm working to keep my promise to her, to beat everybody who stands in my way," he clenched his hand around the sword, clearly thinking of Mihawk, "so that I can become the best in the world!"

Otter's eyes were wide, looking at the katana and then at the man who held it. His eyes kept flicking back to the Veritometer, which had not changed at all, bespeaking the truth of Zoro's tale. "What happened to her?" Otter asked. He turned to look at me. "You're Kuina, aren't you? He took you with him, like he said!"

Zoro smiled wryly. "That's Robin," he said, looking into the boy's face. "A day after Kuina and I had made our promise, she died. Fell down some damned stairs of all things. But I still carry her sword, and I intend to use it to defeat any rival that I feel might be beating me. Because Kuina lives in it, I know she does."

His story finished, Zoro took his katana from the table and slipped it into his belt beside the other two.

Both Otter and his mother looked stunned. Clearly the story had impressed. "Travelers never disappoint," the woman said, running her fingers through her thick, black hair. "Agate," she called. A girl about the same age as Otter appeared from a caravan behind the stall.

"Yes?" The girl said, looking at us warily.

"Get these travelers some stew and rosemary bread." The woman turned back to us, watching Otter put away the Veritometer from the corner of her eye. "My name's Delphine. If you ever need food, please return. We love stories here." Agate brought four steaming bowls of stew and large chunks of bread to us, laying them on a table a few feet from the counter.

I smiled. "We'll be back, I'm sure."

Delphine thanked us, then went back to weaving her bead skirt as the four of us sat down at the table and began to eat.

The stew was unlike anything I had ever tasted. It was rich with seafood and spice, tasting of the salt water and the desert all at once. The bread was surprisingly spicy and crisp, but complemented the stew wonderfully. We sat in silence, eating. I kept glancing at Zoro, who looked sad, all emotion in his hard face drawn inside.

When we were finished, it was nearly time to meet the Bell-Viper, so the four of us began meandering back towards the place we'd first left the rest of our crew. Brook and Franky pressed ahead, investigating all the gypsy market had to offer. I was sure the crew could have spent days here, if given the chance.

I lingered back with Zoro, walking quietly at his side. Eventually, he turned to me. "What?" He asked, stopping and looking at me with his arms crossed.

"I thought you weren't going to talk about Kuina anymore, swordsman-san," I said.

He opened his mouth to make a biting retort, then closed it again, sighing. "Yeah, I know," he ran his fingers through his hair. "It's just that I keep having dreams about her. She'll pop up in the most random places, and I can't help thinking that maybe she's mad at me for going so far without her."

I disguised my pity for Zoro behind a cool mask of emotionlessness before replying. "Swordsman-san, you are an incredible warrior. If Kuina's spirit can see you, she wouldn't be angry about that, would she?"

He shook his head, laughing. "If she were alive, I would have found a way to take her with us. I think she and Nami would have gotten along well. Would have made for some interesting dinner conversations."

For the first time, I saw what might have been a tear at the corner of Zoro's eye. "Did she love you back?" I asked, point-blank.

He looked up at me, surprised by the directness of my question. "Yes." he replied. "She once said she would have married me, if I'd asked."

"You never told that part of the story before," I said calmly, starting to walk again. I could hear the Bell-Viper's voice in the distance, and didn't want to keep the crew waiting.

He was quiet for a second. "This island scares me, Robin." He said. "I don't know why, but it does."

It scares me, too I thought. But I stopped myself from saying it. Zoro didn't need to know what I was afraid of. "Swordsman-san, are you scared of clowns?" I laughed and he laughed with me, putting an arm around my shoulder for a second.

"I'm sorry I was ever suspicious of you," he said.

And I of you, I thought, remembering an image from somewhere of Zoro slicing Luffy's face to ribbons. It was a vivid flash from my nightmare, and instantly I shut it out. "It's alright, swordsman-san."

The Bell-Viper's voice had grown louder, and I could hear him calling to Brook and Franky, who had gotten distracted by a vendor selling old clocks. "Come on," Zoro said. "Waiting's hazardous to Luffy's health, we should hurry up."

I nodded and we set off at a brisk pace through the colorful, desert streets of the gypsy market. I promised myself I would return as soon as I could, to learn more about the people and their culture. Zoro walked a few steps ahead of me and I stared at his back as we went. If swordsman-san is scared, why is no one else? I thought. Our crew's second name should really have been the False Sense of Security Pirates, though, so everybody's obliviousness almost didn't shock me. Still, my own doubt was returning, especially as I turned to look at the Bell-Viper and Nila with their pale, too-perfect faces. I looked down at a gypsy child and she smiled at me, flashing wickedly pointed teeth. Suddenly, the whole island seemed sharp.

Your swordsman, too?

Oh Luffy, what treasures you have brought for me to play with!

I hope you won't miss them too badly when they go away

because the circus needs more performers

and the circus won't be denied.