Hello everyone, I'm sorry it took me so long to update this. And also, I'm sorry if it's a little boring…I'm trying to build this one up a little more than the first one; you know, a few more side-adventures…BUT DON'T WORRY IT'S SLOWLY ALL BUILDING! SERCRETS WILL SOON BE REVEILED! (What's up with Percy's past, how did Hell find out about the crew in the first place, can the crew trust ANYONE?) Anyway, I hope you're enjoying it so far and that you continue reading. And please…PLEASE REVIEW!

Ch 4: Hell Watches the Hounds

Luffy barged into the small shack, almost breaking the door at the same time. "Hey, is anyone here?" He called out. He was in a small room, but it did have a small bar counter though all of the tables laid out were empty. "Hey, we need some food!" Everyone soon appeared behind him.

"Did you find any food?" Usopp asked peaking over Luffy's shoulder.

"Who the hell is it?" A cranky voice suddenly replied from somewhere else in the shack. Everyone waited anxiously for him to show himself. A small, worn out old man came limping into the room from some back room. His skin looked like old leather and his clothes were ripped and tattered. "What do you want?" He snapped, showing off the spaces within his teeth.

"Please excuse our rude entrance but would you mind letting us stay a while." Nami unbuttoned her shirt and tried wooing the old man. She waved her hand in the air to cool herself off. "It's just so hot in here." Meanwhile Sanji was staring at her with hearts in his eyes screaming 'Mellorine. Mellorine. Mellorine.' Usopp had to hold him back.

"Easy tiger…" He mumbled under the strain. The old man stared at her, obviously not being wooed.

"Eh—fine…" He grumbled, limping over behind the counter. Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper ran over to the counter and gladly sat down on the stools.

"Is there anything we could do to help; we're chefs." Sanji said motioning to himself and Percy.

"I wouldn't want your dirty hands touching the food." The old man snapped. Sanji took a deep breath and contained his anger, and then he glanced down at the old man's bony fingers and saw them cover with filth. This made him even angrier. Percy grabbed his shoulder. 'It's not worth it,' is what his face said. Sanji sighed and reluctantly took a seat next to Robin and Nami. Percy and Rose sat at their own table.

"Do you have a name?" Robin asked while leaning on her elbow. The old man grumbled but replied: "Gray." As soon as he said this Akio and Zoro entered the shack and they both froze. Gray stared at them with his black beady eyes. He rubbed them just to make sure.

"Back away slowly…" Zoro whispered to Akio and the two of them slowly backed away towards the door.

"IT'S YOU TWO!" Gray screamed, quickly wobbling over to them. His speed surprised everyone.

"We're screwed…" Akio whispered nervously. Zoro could feel him shaking and sighed, he could be such a baby sometimes. Gray glared at them, but he had to look straight up at them. He barely made it up to their waist.

"You guys know each other?" Luffy asked curiously.

"These two left without repaying their dept!" He jabbed a finger at them. Nami looked at him with pity.

"Zoro, you do make depts. where ever you go?" She sighed.

"Shut up women." He snapped under his breath.

"Listen," Gray smirked as an idea popped into his head. "I'll gladly feed your friends here, if you do something for me."

"Hell no! We'll—" Zoro said immediately. Akio punched him in the side.

"We'll be happy to help." He smiled.

"What are you doing?" Zoro whispered.

"Shhh…We don't even know what it s he wants." Akio replied. He turned towards Gray and asked: "Just what is it you want us to do?"

"Oh, I'll let you know later." Gray laughed to himself and started limping back to the counter where the three idiots were waiting for food.

"God damn him." Zoro grumbled sitting down with Sanji and the girls.

"He already has." Akio smiled before going to sit down with Rose and Percy. As Gray disappeared into a back room Sanji started tapping his fingers on the table incessantly. At first Zoro just shrugged it off and went back to being angry at the old geezer but soon the sound grew irritating to the point where he flinched at every tap. Sanji, however, seemed almost unaware he was doing this as he stared off into the distance with a frown.

"Do you mind?" Zoro asked glaring.

"What, Marimo?" He spat. Zoro glanced down at his tapping fingers. Is he an idiot? He thought, raising an eyebrow. Robin then leaned in and tapped Zoro on the shoulder.

"He's probably in withdrawn because he can't smoke." She reminded with a hush voice. Zoro remember that anyone who smokes here will burst into flames, just another one of Hell's jokes for those addicted to nicotine. With a deep sigh he felt pity for the young chef but once the tapping came irritating once again all pity was lost. Zoro started rubbing his temples; he had too much to worry about now.

Meanwhile, Rose had taken her arrows off her back and was in the middle of cleaning the tips off of any lingering blood. Percy watched her seeing how there was nothing else to do. Akio had also taken his gun out and began polishing that as well, not that it could be polished any more than it already was.

"I didn't know you knew archery." Percy said, breaking the small silence at their table. "You too," He turned towards Akio. "Who knew you were such a good marksman."

"Eh—I guess I never brought it up." Akio said sheepishly. Rose held the arrow up and squinted her eyes.

"Geez, these things never get clean." She sighed, putting it back down and cleaning it some more.

"Maybe if you didn't attack your enemies with such force there wouldn't be as much blood on them." Akio suggested politely. Rose glared at him thinking it was an insult.

"What and let you handle all of the work?" She growled. Akio sighed. What happened to that nice moment we had back in our world. I thought we would actually start going out or something after that… He thought depressed. Suddenly Gray came out of the back room, his hands full of plates of food.

"Do you need any help?" Percy asked, getting up from his seat.

"No, no I don't need any help." Gray scowled. Percy sat back down. He really reminds me of Yu…. He thought, staring at Gray as he placed the food in front of everyone.

"I already ate; thank you though." Akio said when Gray came to their table.

"All of us Hounds ate already." Rose added.

"Eh—so you are Hounds." He said after placing the final plate in front of Sanji.

"What do you mean?" Robin asked.

"Hounds get special treatment here—people are always impersonating them to get that treatment." Gray explained.

"Who would want to be a Hound?" Zoro mumbled; he started scratching the table with his fingernail. Gray stared at him before limping away. Luffy just finished up licking the rest of the food on the plate when he sighed deeply.

"Aw, thanks old man; that was really good." He said patting his bulging stomach. It was some kind of meat covered in some sauce. Sanji tried a bite and was stunned. It really was good. However, the flavor was a mystery to him. It didn't taste like any kind of ingredients he knew of.

"I was meaning to ask this earlier, but what was that monster before?" Usopp asked after handing his spotless plate to Gray who already started to collect them.

"It was a demon." Rose said while finishing off with her arrows. She slid them back onto her back with the bow. "Here that's what we Hounds eat: demons."

"T-There are demons here too?" Chopper gasped. His blood ran cold.

"It's Hell…what'd you expect?" Nami replied coldly. Zoro looked up from a spot on the ground to see Luffy stared out the windows with his head tilted in curiosity.

"What's wrong, Luffy?" He asked, wondering what was bothering him.

"Is it me or did it get darker out?" Luffy questioned while scratching the back of his head. Everyone turned to look out the windows.

"Of course it got darker," Gray snapped as if it was obvious. "It's night time." He went back into the back room.

"I didn't think there was a day and night in Hell?" Percy said what everyone was thinking.

"It's dangerous to travel at night." Zoro added. "Because there's no glow from the Lost Children you can't see anything."

"Just what are the Lost Children?" Robin asked curiously.

"There's an old story that the first two souls to enter Hell turned into the two moons in the sky. Because they're forced the wander the sky endlessly they're called them the Lost Children." Akio explained as if he was reading it from a book. Robin smiled. Everything was very interesting here.

"I have rooms upstairs if you want to rest." Gray said, suddenly coming out of the room. "Come on," He started leading everyone up the old, moldy stairs. "But you two," He pointed to Zoro and Akio who froze. "We'll discuss our dept while your friends sleep." He growled, disappearing up the stairs behind everyone else.

Zoro moaned and dropped back down onto the chair. "God I hate that old man…" He sighed rubbing his hand through his hair. His attitude towards everything never seems to change and this made Akio smile.

"Still, you have to be thankful that he's taking everyone in." He said sitting down in front of everyone. Zoro stuck out his lower lip. He knew what Akio was saying was right, but he didn't want to admit it. Akio laughed.

It took a few minutes but soon Gray came back down the stairs. "Your friends must've been tired; they fell asleep right away." He said. "Now," Taking a seat on one of the stools he began to explain. "Your dept…" They shivered; what could this evil old man have in store for them?

~*0-0*~

Silence coated the desert in a thin blanket. The Lost Children were no longer seeable in the night. Instead of everything being tinted red there was a trace of blue on everything. The shack was quiet with only the soft sound of people in a deep sleep. "I can't believe that the old man wants us to deliver something for him." Zoro grumbled.

"It's not that bad of a deal." Akio disagreed. The two were sitting outside of the shack by the door, one on each side. Zoro wrapped his arms around his knees; his head bobbed his exhaustion.

"Don't fall asleep now, if you do then there's no point in us being out here." Akio said with a gently tone. Zoro groaned and used all of his energy to pull his head up. After staring at him for a minute Akio added: "You can go in and sleep if you want; I'll stay out here."

"No," Zoro said stubbornly. "It's fine." Akio sighed and leaned against the shack even more.

"Do you think anything's even out there?" He asked, staring out at the desert, but as soon as he said this a distant figure came into view. As the air grew tense he knew that Zoro saw it too. "Me?" He asked.

"Probably…" Zoro replied in a hushed tone. The figure was still for a few minutes and neither of them talked—it was a deadlock between the three. Suddenly and without warning the figure vanished and appeared in front of them a few feet away revealing its identity to in fact be Me.

Me was a tall, white deer with black zebra stripes. He had impressive antlers that stretched high into the air; each point sharpened to a tip. His eyes were black and alien-like, showing no emotion while they stared at the two hounds that held their breath in his presence.

"What are you doing here, Me?" Zoro asked, breaking the silence. It shattered like glass and a conversation emerged from the broken remains.

"I'm just here to observe—like always." He answered calmly, however, his mouth didn't move when he talked. His blank eyes almost pierced through the two with the simplest of gazes.

"No, why are you watching us?" Zoro rephrased his question and asked it with attitude. Me was silent for a moment.

"I'm just watching; doesn't my name suggest only that?" He asked, pointing out the fact that his name: Me, meant eyes. "I can do no harm." And he meant this literally, Me could not harm anyone, even if he wanted to. Zoro glared at him.

"Go watch someone else." He growled.

"I can't; I have orders…please pay me no attention."

"Cut the crap! We knew that Hell sees everything through your eyes; why else would they be so lifeless if they were nothing but simple windows!" Zoro sudden outburst made Akio flinch but Me still wouldn't show emotion. Me then turned to walk away, but he looked back over his shoulder to say one more thing.

"I truly hope you have a safe trip on your little delivery…and don't worry, I'll watch over your friends for you." After this he vanished again. The broken glass reformed and created silence once more.