Third and final part of Strong World … I really don't want to write the next couple of chapters, though … so it might be a while for the next update. Not to mention, Holidays are coming up … It will probably be January the next time I post. So enjoy and have some fun holidays! (This year, I've got Thanksgiving, a possible Hanukah, and Christmas.)

Warnings!: Alternate Universe, Messing with Canon, Mentioned Character Deaths, etc … Though if you haven't figured that out by now, I'm a little disappointed … POV changes again … Oh, and I didn't repeat everything from the movie, and summarized a few parts. I am assuming you've watched Strong World, and if you haven't, I'd recommend you go do so.

True Strength

Nami had not been having a particularly good week after being kidnapped. Her Climatact had been taken from her after the first time she used it to attack someone (she hadn't even gotten to use any weather tricks, she'd just brained the guy) and she refused to use the room actually set aside for her in favor of the pool room, which she had noticed was salt water, though it took her a while to confirm it was connected to the outside; then the only reason she didn't go straight through was because she didn't know how deep and had no way of getting to one of the other floating islands without hurting herself.

So, she had resigned herself to wait until the others came to her rescue up until earlier today, when Shiki told her the local animals were drugged to be aggressive and dangerous. And then left her with the one that wasn't aggressive (though its electric shocks were still dangerous) and could swim and fly. And because he had just visited her, he wouldn't be bothering her until just before dinner, giving her ample time to escape and put some distance between them.

Nami sighed as she readjusted her bag in order to hold on to the Bird's feet as the electric bird flew her up to the lip of the crater. The problem, she realized, was finding any of the others with all the animals enraged by that SIQ drug, and doing that before Shiki noticed she was missing and came after her.

She was worried about the others, so much so that she was mostly thinking about them instead of taking in her surroundings. She almost missed seeing Sunny right in front of her. No one was there, but she could wait there until someone else found it, rather than risk anymore of those monsters trying to eat her.

An explosion off to the side surprised her into stopping. A moment later, Luffy and a giraffe all but skidded out in front of the ship. "We found Sunny!" Luffy cheered, the giraffe turning back into Kaku.

"Luffy! Kaku!" Both whirled around, and Luffy grinned.

"Nami!" He charged up the side of the crater, Kaku jumping ahead of him just in time to avoid the three scorpions and a lion that were chasing them. Nami decided to turn and run as well, yelling at Luffy for leading the animals in question towards her.

Thankfully the bird charged to their rescue.

"Hey, Nami. You alright?" Kaku asked, ignoring Luffy whose attention was turned on the bird, and possibly cooking up the scorpion.

"I'm fine. Shiki never harmed me. What about you guys?" Nami asked as they started back down towards Sunny.

"Exhausted." Kaku smiled. Nami was taken aback by it- Kaku had sort of smiled before, but this was the first time she could describe it as a genuine smile. "I'm glad you're alright."

"Hey, Kaku, Sunny's okay, right?" Luffy yelled, and both Nami and Kaku blinked in surprise. "Shiki didn't hurt him, right?"

"I'll check!" Kaku called back, leaving Luffy to set up a fire in order to cook the scorpion. Nami shook her head, deciding to grab some dry clothes to change into before hanging up her wet ones.

"So, Kaku's been with you the entire time?" Nami asked, hanging up the clothes that had gotten wet in her bag.

"Yep! He's cool!" Luffy said, and Nami could imagine the grin. "So, where'd you get Billy?" Luffy asked.

"Billy?" Nami blinked, only for Luffy to pull on the Bird's face, completely unfazed by the electric shock the bird produced. "Oh, yeah, I forgot electricity doesn't affect a rubber person." How she'd forgotten the fight against Eneru was a mystery. She ducked behind the rocks to change.

"Hey, want some scorpion?" Nami intended to say no, only for another voice to interrupt her.

"Yeah, sure." Kaku sat down on the other side of Luffy. "Sunny's okay, not even a scratch." He told Luffy, taking a huge bite of the scorpion as Nami came over to sit down.

"That's good." Nami answered for Luffy, who had a mouth full of said scorpion. "Should we wait here for the others?" Nami asked, knowing the answer.

"No way, that would be boring!" Luffy swallowed.

"The problem is we can't really take another week of wandering around trying to find them." Kaku pointed out.

"Billy could carry us. Right?" Luffy tugged on the bird, getting another electric shock. Nami barely kept from giggling at Kaku's reaction. The former CP9 agent managed to have a jaw drop and choke on the mouthful of scorpion he'd bitten into at the same time.

"He's made of rubber." Nami didn't stop her giggles from leaking into her voice. Kaku gave her a baleful look as he finally managed to breathe again.

"I was more surprised that Billy was electric." Kaku said a little stiffly, before tilting his head. "There are some rubber mats in Franky's workspace, we could use them as a saddle, I guess."

"Right! We'll go after we finish the scorpion!" Luffy said, cracking yet another bit of scorpion open.

"You're both forgetting something, though." Kaku looked over at Nami.

"What?" Nami asked, Luffy's question came out muffled by the mouthful of food.

"Shiki's going to want to get Nami back. We don't know how long we have until he comes looking for her."

"So? I'll beat him up." Luffy said, and Nami watched Kaku, for what must have been the first time since he came aboard, not back down when faced with Luffy's decision making. It had felt odd, the way Kaku had kept deferring to all of them, but Nami had figured he'd realize soon enough (especially after reading the logs) that they wouldn't turn on him, and he'd relax then. (Her main concern had been re-adjusting the budget to fit the increase in crew members.)

"Right, but he'll be giving as good as he gets- remember Moria? You collapsed afterwards; and Shiki's, at the least, on the level of the Shichibukai. We need to have a bit more of a plan than 'beat him up', such as do we try to hide Nami or keep her nearby?" Kaku pointed out.

Luffy scowled a bit at the reminder of how much trouble he'd had with Moria. Nami didn't like it either, because it reminded her too much of the situation she'd been in with Arlong.

"We keep her nearby, Shiki might distract us and fly off with her again. We hide her, Shiki will be more focused on finding her, and give you more time to beat him." Kaku explained. "We don't leave her behind, just make it difficult for Shiki to grab her."

That was a pretty good plan, actually, though Nami didn't like the idea of not being with the others while they fought for her, but if it would help beat Shiki, and keep her from getting taken away again, then she had no problem hiding. (She was a thief, after all, she preferred fighting when she knew she had an advantage, and avoiding a fight when she didn't.)

"I don't get it, she'd be safer with us." Luffy started, and Nami realized they were talking as if she wasn't there, so she quickly hit both of them.

"Don't I get a say in this?!" Nami ignored the wounded looks both of them shot her. "I appreciate you guys wanting to keep me safe; those jerks took my climatact, so I won't be able to help fight until I get it back or Usopp makes me a new one. But we need to find the others first, then we can decide if I hide or not."

"Fair enough." Kaku rubbed his head, but unlike the previous times when he'd backed down, Nami didn't see any frustration at them not listening to him. There was a little bit of resignation, but for the most part, Kaku appeared to have settled for that decision.

It took an oddly short time, after putting all the excess scorpion in the fridge, to get Billy saddled with a rubber mat and figure out how all three were going to fit. They ended up having to get a second mat to act as a sling that Billy carried and Kaku took that. (Kaku belatedly thought that maybe he (or Nami) should have stayed with Sunny so Shiki didn't attack it, but by then they were heading to another island.)

"So Shiki's the reason why all these animals are crazy?" Luffy asked as they flew, having just finished telling her all the different animals they'd been fighting, and learning that Shiki had been behind making them that way.

"Ri- AHH!" Nami yelled as Billy suddenly banked, Kaku almost getting dropped as the bird shot to a small floating piece of an island. Kaku ended up almost getting landed on in the process, thankfully Nami was the one that fell on him, not Billy. He didn't really notice though.

"What's wrong with you?" Billy wouldn't look at them, trying to rub his beak on the grass, and obviously in discomfort. Billy wasn't the only one suffering, Kaku was holding his nose too.

"What the hell is that? I think my nose is going to fall off!" Kaku's eyes were watering.

Nami looked down, spotting a village surrounded by familiar looking trees, the same she had seen surrounding Shiki's palace. She realized they must keep animals away by the smell they put out, and told them.

"Why do they not bother you two?" Kaku managed, trying not to breathe through his nose. (Which was annoyingly harder than it should have been, Kaku thought whatever was making the smell was purposefully trying to fly up his nose.)

"I guess because you're a zoan, you said your senses were stronger now, right?" Nami offered. Luffy wasn't interest in this mystery, preferring to tell them to plug their noses so they could keep going and check out the village.

They managed to spot a small group of people outside one house, and Kaku jumped out of the sling and used geppo to get down to the ground so Billy would have an easier time of landing than before.

Usopp, Chopper, Sanji and Roronoa looked up, all with similar relieved smiles (well, if that was a smile Roronoa was giving, it looked more like a grimace).

"Kaku!" Chopper jumped at him, Kaku caught him with a small smile, trying not to lose the plugs in his nose. "You can't stand the smell either?" Chopper looked at him in concern, one hoof gently touching Kaku's nose, as if about to check if it was damaged.

"Nope." Kaku shook his head. "You get used to it?" Kaku noted the lack of plugs, but before Chopper could speak, Billy landed, and Sanji almost knocked them over in joy.

"Nami! I'm so happy you're safe!" Sanji yelled as Nami hopped off Billy. "I couldn't sleep, I was so worried!" Kaku watched as Sanji fell to the ground, wondering if there was something wrong with the cook. Chopper wiggled out of his hold to go check on the cook.

"No kidding, he kept us up at night." Usopp grumbled.

"Wait! We're still missing Robin!" Sanji shot up in a panic, and Chopper dove behind Kaku, having been startled. There probably would have been a fight between Sanji and Roronoa, save for the door opening to the house, and its occupants offering to let Nami take a rest inside. Kaku wasn't paying much attention, in favor of opening his knapsack.

"Chopper, we found something for you to look at- I apologize, when we found Sunny I took one of those sample vials from your infirmary to put it in." Kaku pulled out a small vial containing the green liquid. "Nami said it's probably a drug called SIQ, which is what made most of the animals so violent, it comes from some sort of IQ plant." Chopper took the vial carefully.

"IQ? Isn't that the plant needed to cure that old woman's illness?" Roronoa asked, looking over.

"They said Shiki hoarded it …" Chopper agreed, then looked up at Kaku. "How'd you find it?"

"There was a quiver of darts, most were broken, I guess the owner got taken out by an animal." Kaku shrugged.

"Think you can figure out an antidote?" Sanji asked, lighting up a cigarette; Usopp and Luffy had already dropped off once they removed the 'saddle' from Billy.

"That'll take some time since we're not on Sunny, and I'm kinda sleepy." Chopper admitted. "I'll ask about the IQ plant Xiao found; when everyone goes to look for the others, I'll go to Sunny and figure it out."

"Works for me." Kaku was tired too, while they had gotten some sleep, it had been mostly catnaps that were interrupted by an animal or insect of some kind. Chopper put the vial carefully into his own bag, and after requesting the small plant (which the woman who opened the door was thinking of planting, to try and get more, but when she heard Chopper's reason for it, she agreed) everyone settled down for a nap.

Zoro woke up to the sound of the villagers talking in hushed but excited tones. He didn't open his eyes until Xiao ran past, excitedly yelling for her mother. Kaku's eyes were also open, and he seemed to be watching the door, frowning.

Zoro decided it wasn't his business, and was about to return to sleep when he heard stone moving. "Shiki's here."

It didn't take long for them to wake the others, Billy taking one look at Shiki and flying off in a panic. Zoro frowned as Luffy glanced at Kaku, who remained close to the house (but not too far behind them) as they all lined up. Luffy noticed, meeting Zoro's eyes and tilting his head slightly towards the house. Zoro gave a small nod, and then turned his attention to Shiki, who landed on the stone he'd just raised.

No one said a word, sizing the opponent up. The silence was broken by the door opening.

'Luffy needs to hear this! We have to stop Shiki!' Nami opened the door, noting the absence of her crewmates, and quickly turned the corner, only to come up short with a gasp. Shiki had found her.

"There you are, Baby Doll, leaving without a word, you sure know how to hurt a guy's feelings." Shiki said, and Nami was just barely aware of Kaku slipping closer to her, angling his body so he was in front of her. "I'm in your head, aren't I, Baby Doll?"

"I've had enough of this crap-!" Sanji growled, only to be interrupted by Luffy.

"Shiki! Don't think you can just take a crewmember and walk away so easily!" Luffy said, and Nami wished for her Climatact. They were going to fight, and she couldn't do anything but stand on the sidelines, or ask Kaku to take her someplace to hide.

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it?"

Luffy's response was snarled a split second before the others charged with him to attack Shiki. Nami was equal measures of hopeful and terrified, because if Luffy didn't win, she'd have to go with Shiki in order to save the East Blue- and she didn't want to. If she had her Climatact, she'd attack him as well, those legs would probably conduct electricity nicely …

Once Luffy rocketed back into Shiki, and he and Sanji landed on the ground, Shiki apparently decided he'd had enough of them. Nami cried out and tried to run forward as the ground suddenly rose up around the fighters, but Kaku grabbed her.

"We need to run, distract him." Kaku's eyes were on what Shiki was doing, even though he was speaking to her. Nami however, noticed that his entire body had stiffened, and he was leaning forward slightly.

Nami had spent enough time with Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy to recognize the body language. He wanted to fight, not run. The only reason Kaku hadn't joined in the fight was so he could get Nami away from Shiki.

"You have to stop him before he hurts them." Nami objected, and Kaku seemed to stiffen his body even more at that, as the ground Shiki was 'floating' formed Lion heads. "He won't be distracted, he'll just take them out and then come after me."

"Gum Gum CANNON!" Luffy yelled, and one lion head was destroyed.

Kaku let her go, and she watched as he appeared behind Shiki just as Shiki blocked Zoro. Shiki moved faster than the rankyaku, though it did hit and hurt him (much to Nami's satisfaction) and whirled around, hitting Kaku and throwing him into the center much faster than Kaku had been expecting him to react. Nami didn't even see what Shiki had hit Kaku with, it had happened so fast.

Kaku hit the ground and rolled to his feet with a grimace. He wasn't sure what Shiki had hit him with, either, just that it had hurt. Shiki laughed, and Kaku suddenly felt himself start to slip into a previous time. –Someone was laughing, "I have no use for failures like you!"- Unfortunately, the distraction cost him, and he couldn't get his tekkai up in time as the lions buried them.

As the ground forced needed air out of his lungs and sent him spiraling into unconsciousness, it wasn't blackness that greeted him.

"What's happened here?! Oi, We need medical attention!" Jyabura yelled, and a medical aide yelped as Spandam pushed them aside.

The rant began once again. Kaku focused on Lucci's pulse. There was an odd laugh- it wasn't Spandam's he distantly noted, too focused on the pulse.

"We didn't fail! You did! It was your orders-!" Jyabura started and was suddenly thrown to the side. BANG! Kaku gripped Lucci's wrist, despite the jerk of the older man's body and the blood that sprayed, he still tried to find the pulse that had been there a moment ago. "Kaku!" He was yanked away, the deck tilting awkwardly, and then he was thrown. "Run! Survive!" The howl was cut off, and Kaku was falling, going to hit the water-

He hit something cold and slippery instead, and forced himself to scramble up and run. Ice, why was there ice? There were feathers on the ice, and blood, but that Hattori was dead almost didn't compute as he ran-

Kaku felt himself wake with a gasp, and promptly coughed instead.

"We've got you, Giraffe-bro, take it easy." Franky pulled him out of the dirt that had imprisoned him.

"What happened?" He managed, pushing back the memory of ice and feathers. "Nami?" What was burning? For a moment, he almost returned back to Enies Lobby, but Franky's hand on his shoulder grounded him.

"Take it easy for a minute, alright?" Franky told him again.

It was a lot longer than a minute, before everyone was awake and details of what happened were shared as Chopper checked them over.

Kaku tugged the brim of his ball cap down as Usopp told them Nami went with Shiki.

"I'll go with you, but only if you let the Straw hats go." So this was what they must have felt back then, learning Robin had gone with CP9 to protect them. Kaku couldn't quite define the emotions, it was a mix of shame that he hadn't been able to stop Shiki and determination to make things right, along with a couple others he'd never been able to put words to. (Though if he'd seen them in someone else, he'd have been able to recognize them; an ironic result of the CP9 psychology training.)

"You're from the East Blue?" Kaku wasn't the only one to look over at the woman who's house they'd been camped out in front of earlier. She had an old woman on her back, and her daughter (Xiao, the woman had called her) was standing next to her. "That girl, she's from the East Blue too?" The woman broke down, apologizing for wishing Shiki would leave and be the East Blue's problem.

"I didn't even think about the people there!" Xiao added, tearing up.

"Hey, Xiao, where'd you get that?" Captain Luffy stood, and Kaku noticed the shell in her hands. Captain Luffy crouched down in front of her, taking the shell. "Y'know Xiao, you and your family are some of the nicest people I've met, and I've met a lot of people. Your home's been destroyed, but you're worried about Nami's feelings." Kaku tilted his head, the three women were practically spellbound by Captain Luffy talking to them. "You don't have anything to apologize for, Shiki's the only bad guy here, and I'm going to take care of him, so cheer up." Xiao gave a small nod, wiping at her eyes.

Captain Luffy walked back to them, and clicked the tone dial on. Kaku closed his eyes as it started, opening them as Captain Luffy suddenly clicked off the recording.

"What the hell is she saying?!" Captain Luffy demanded, and Usopp tried to calm him down.

"Well, you guys did get your asses kicked." Franky pointed out.

"That was, I was hungry, damnit!" Captain Luffy snarled out, and shoved the tone dial at Usopp, stalking to just a little way off.

"Usopp, play it again." Roronoa said. Usopp clicked on the recording again, and everyone (sans Captain Luffy, who's fist shot past them) listened again.

"-And if you don't believe me, then prove me wrong, and save me." Nami's voice faded into a whisper, but it was oddly punctuated by the sound of rock breaking from the captain's punch.

"Captain, what's the plan?" Roronoa turned towards Captain Luffy, and Kaku wasn't the only one to follow that example.

"We're getting Nami back and beating anyone that gets in our way." Captain Luffy declared, and Kaku was oddly struck by the expression on his face- a feral look that promised pain and possibly death to any idiot that challenged him, and a sincere hope that some poor fool would give him an excuse to attack. It reminded him of Lucci, actually.

"They'll be at the Palace. The dress code is Black Tie." Robin crossed her arms.

"Who cares about a dress code?" Usopp asked.

"Well, it might rub it in, don't you think?"

"I'll ask around." Xiao's mother suddenly said. "We do have some formal wear- Shiki once came to the village when they planted the daft green."

"We can steal some from the pirates-"

"Please, let us help." Xiao's mother interrupted.

"Thanks for the help!" Captain Luffy said, stopping anymore arguments.

With the help of the villagers, and those who were at the pirate's gathering point, they soon had plenty of formal clothes, and some forgotten weapons. Sunny was fueled up and ready to go, they just had to get dressed.

(Easier said than done, Franky was extremely reluctant to wear pants, and only Sanji and Kaku knew how to tie ties. Captain Luffy disliked the way the suit hindered his ability to stretch, but notably didn't complain.)

Kaku froze in front of the mirror, he'd gotten a dull-orange shirt, black vest, and was in the process of tying his bow tie (Robin's idea, he'd have preferred a straight tie like everyone else). It was perhaps the stupidest reason for him to suddenly freeze up, a part of him noted, and he shook it off. Sanji wore a suit, and it never bothered him before, but putting one on, and planning to take out several pirate crews suddenly made things seem different. Unaware of Kaku's sudden discomfort, Roronoa slipped in, trying to loosen the tie a certain cook had tightened too much.

"Bow tie?" Roronoa asked, noticing.

"Yeah." Kaku managed. It wasn't one of the large, slightly goofy looking ones, just a small, straight-edged bow tie. CP9's dress code had always been formal, but open to interpretation, but an unspoken rule had always been that no one wore a bow tie, either a straight one or went open at the neck. "No haramaki?"

"That woman hid it, something about not being considered 'formal'." Roronoa muttered, finally fixing his tie.

Similar, but different. Kaku took a deep breath, or as much of one he could with his nose still congested, and gave a slight nod to Roronoa, grabbing his suit jacket and heading out on deck. His discomfort lingering a little longer, before fading as Franky yelled out for them to get ready.

One Coup de Burst later, Kaku wondered if it would have been safer to have everyone go into a cabin when they used that technique. The guards at the entrance of Shiki's palace went down easily, and Kaku followed Robin in the grim procession towards the area Shiki and the other pirates were meeting. The instant they were in front of the door, Franky doled out the weapons, Kaku taking two blunderbusses that had been modified to shoot multiple rounds.

Roronoa cut one door, and Usopp's attempt made Kaku roll his eyes, hoping that hadn't harmed the effect their entrance was supposed to make. Once Sanji kicked the door (and Usopp) in, the show began.

Zoro was itching for the fight to start. It had been Robin, Sanji and Kaku who had argued for this approach, Luffy agreeing because while Luffy was an idiot, he understood that it was necessary to make some sort of statement before a fight, whether it was with words or ordering the burning of a flag. They hadn't really planned everything, who would stand where, who would do what, but they didn't really need too.

Luffy was in the center, less for his protection and more so the rest of them could get a chance at the pirates around them, and they didn't even need to speak as they moved forward.

"Where's Nami?" Luffy asked, and they all stopped as the pirates chuckled at Shiki's reply. Zoro kept his face blank at the possible implications that came with that (East blue might have had the weakest pirates, but that didn't mean they weren't capable of cruelty, Zoro had hunted quite a few that had kidnapped women … coincidentally, they were usually the ones he brought in mostly dead) and waited for Luffy's signal.

"Nami didn't come here as a sacrifice, she joined you so she could attack from the inside! Brace yourself, Gold Lion Shiki, WE ARE THE MAIN FORCE!" Zoro lifted up the weapon and began firing. Personally, he didn't particularly care for use of firearms, too easy in his opinion, but they needed to use them to make a point. Brook was laughing, and Zoro was faintly aware of Luffy joining them.

When the guns and hand-held cannons ran out of ammo, Zoro was almost disappointed. Almost. "Let's get serious."

"Usopp, Chopper, find Nami!" Luffy ordered, and then the real battle began.

Kaku tore through the pirates that tried to attack him. Now that they were no longer being bombarded, the pirates apparently still thought they could take them.

"What the hell, a giraffe?" A pirate demanded as Kaku shifted into his hybrid form. "What sort of pansy-assed," he started, only for that to be the last thing he ever said. Kaku focused on taking down as many pirates as he could, only to get nearly trampled by a lion-dog.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Kaku glared up at the lion-dog, who glared down at him. "I've had enough of this place …"

The battle spread the Straw Hat crew out. Kaku's defeat of the lion-dog helped him meet up with Franky, and the two quickly began battling their way back to Sunny to get the next part of their plan up and running.

Well, up until Kaku got separated from Franky- the land octopus recognized him and wanted revenge, and then Kaku got landed on by Sanji who was in a rage about something Brook had done.

"Franky's headed back to Sunny, is there any word on Nami's location?" Kaku asked as they met up with Brook and Robin, Sanji glaring at Brook and muttering about bone soups. (Kaku had a feeling he didn't want to know.)

"Not yet. We better hurry and start laying out the dynamite." Robin noted. It was hard to tell if the noise that followed was the rumble of thunder, or part of the palace getting destroyed.

"Right!"

Usopp, Nami and Chopper met up with them at the entrance before they split up again, Nami quickly telling them she tricked Shiki into heading towards a storm- Usopp going with Sanji and Brook to make sure any pirates in the building ran (before Brook went to Sunny to help get the sail from Shiki's ship tied), Robin and Chopper started to lay out dynamite, and Kaku followed Nami when he saw her split off from the others.

"Got your climatact back, I see." Kaku noted, along with the odd green bruises that decorated her skin.

"He gave it back once I joined him. Idiot." Nami then started to climb out a window onto a ledge. Kaku rolled his eyes, he could guess what she wanted to do, and turned into his full form.

"Get on, I'll get you up to the roof." Kaku crouched down awkwardly so she could climb onto his back. Giraffes were not really made for bending down, it was awkward at best and a face-fault at worst, he'd discovered during the past week.

Nami grinned as she climbed up. "Thanks."

The roof itself was far too slippery for either hybrid or full giraffe form, so Kaku turned back to human form, and then moved down to a lower roof as Nami called out Shiki. Captain Luffy was, he noted with a little concern, nowhere in sight.

Shiki responded about as well as they expected when he heard about the dynamite. Captain Luffy arrived via Billy just as Shiki flung two large chunks of rock at her.

"Nami!" Usopp yelled, then gaped as a giraffe using geppo landed with Nami on its back, running alongside the others as they raced for the ship.

Behind them, Billy was glowing and Captain Luffy used Third Gear on his foot, stretching it up to get even more of a charge from the lightning. Shiki's rant was barely discernible from the sounds of the storm. They all watched as Captain Luffy slammed his foot down, taking out Shiki and cracking the ground, discharging the lightning.

"Time to go!" Franky yelled, firing up a Coup de Burst, Kaku grabbed onto the railing for the slide, keeping an eye on Nami.

The sail from Shiki's ship opened, slowing them down significantly, and Kaku reluctantly let go of the railing. Where was Captain Luffy?

A familiar yell answered that question, and Billy, Captain Luffy on his back, emerged out of a cloud bank.

"Why the heck does he shrink, anyway?" Kaku asked, ignoring the comments on how stupid it looked. "Rubber doesn't shrink after expanding, does it?" Something else dropped through the clouds, distracting them.

"The islands are falling." Robin noted, "With Shiki's power gone … there's nothing to keep them up."

"What about Xiao and the others?!" The question was answered by the sight of the residents of the island flying over head.

"Nami!" Chopper yelled, and everyone quickly crowded around their navigator, wanting to check on her. Once Chopper and Robin took her to the girl's room, everyone else initially started to get ready for their landing, cannon fire and a cannonball flying past got their attention.

"Marines!"

"It figures, they show up after we've done the work!" Sanji said, annoyed.

"One last Coup de Burst!" Franky announced. Billy flew off at Captain Luffy's urging. And within moments, they were clear of the Navy.

Everyone scattered once they were deemed 'safe', either to nap or make sure they were back on course. Sanji went into the kitchen to make some thing to eat for those who weren't sleeping, Zoro and Usopp had pretty much passed out on the deck while Franky made sure they were sailing in the right direction and Brook began playing a melody on his violin.

Kaku went into the library, exhausted but not yet ready for sleep. He stretched out on one of the benches, and stared up at the ceiling.

It had been a hell of a week, and the events of the last few hours were catching up to him. He wanted to try and sort through them, maybe get some more insight on where he fit in on the crew, but all he could think of was the memory he had relived while stuck in the rock.

Why would anyone have bothered to shoot Hattori? He felt a little sick at the memory, but more ill that he had forgotten that part. The mind repressed things that it felt it couldn't deal with right away, he knew that, had studied cases that varied from a single missing memory to people whose minds had re-written everything to try and cope. It wasn't an exact science, of course, and there were more questions than answers … but Kaku was trained to deal with horrible things and not shut down. Why his mind had forgotten he saw Hattori on the ice was beyond him- he hadn't forgotten that Lucci had died right in front of him. Hadn't forgotten the bodies of the others, or the way Jyabura's voice cut off mid howl, so why had he forgotten Hattori, a bird, had been shot?

His CP9 training was unhelpfully drawing a blank, so he focused on the other part he'd just remembered. He'd landed on ice. The only ice could have come from Admiral Aokoji, but why would the admiral freeze that spot? When had the admiral even gotten there?

Kaku rubbed his eyes, pressing the heels of his palms against them. Why couldn't he remember everything? There was something important about the way everything played out, and he couldn't even remember how exactly things happened.

Spandam had been ranting- but he hadn't had a gun, he'd just been pointing accusingly at them. Kaku swallowed. Someone else had shot Lucci, on Spandam's orders, yes, but whoever pulled the trigger would have been near Spandam. That someone was possibly the one that laughed, or there was some sick person who'd enjoyed the sight of an unconscious person getting shot, he wasn't ruling that out. Jyabura had thrown him off the ship, and he'd landed on ice, which could only be caused by one devil fruit user (that he knew of) and had seen Hattori's body, before running to- where? Enies Lobby had been on fire, hadn't it?

Kaku gave up trying to remember, his thoughts locked in an unhelpful loop that didn't present anything new. The memory would probably come back sooner if he didn't worry about it.

Meanwhile, he would try to process the fact that he actually enjoyed the weird adventure he'd had this past week, and that he might actually enjoy being a pirate in this crew. His eyes fell on the book case where Brook's bottle ship was still the sole occupant. He'd be able to finish Going Merry soon, and then start on Thousand Sunny.

Captain Luffy's loud demands for food made him smile, and he got up to go see if Sanji needed help. At the least by keeping Captain Luffy out of the kitchen, if not with preparing dinner (or breakfast, actually).

There was one thing Kaku had finally understood, and that was as much as the rest complained (truthfully) the Captain was an idiot and would hit him for it, they respected his strength and determination a hell of a lot more. (He was the reason most of them were now pirates, anyway, judging by the logs.) Strangely that was enough for Kaku to respect him, too.

Done with Strong World (save for occasional mentions later on). No Tone Dial hijinks at the end, sorry, but it felt like the best place to end the chapter.

Notes:

Nami doesn't have her climatact during most of the movie, I figured Shiki had it confiscated, and gave it back when she 'joined' him.

Because Usopp and Sanji don't mention the mobile surveillance snail, Kaku isn't aware that he needs to be on the lookout for it. (He was not happy when they later told him about it, by the way.) And they end up spending too long in the village. As for not immediately running off with Nami- Nami had declared it her call on whether or not she ran and hid. Luffy 'told' Kaku to stay back in case Nami wanted to run. When it came down to it, Kaku really wanted to fight more than he wanted to run (gee, sound familiar?) and Nami decided not to run. Kaku's an assassin and usually practical, yes, but he still loves a good fight when he gets the chance.

Skipped over a lot of Shiki's lines- not sorry, I just couldn't stop typing 'Blah Villian Cliché' and 'blah-de-blah idiot cliché' mostly because I watched the movie so many times I got tired of Shiki's smugness and wanted to punch him myself. Great Villian, actually, creeped me out, but between his talking about his plans and Dr. Indigo's shoes, typing his lines got annoying.

Not mentioned in story, but my head-canon is that the IQ plant is also the antidote to SIQ- The mammoth ate it, and that's what calmed it down, and Xiao got the one plant it didn't eat. *shrugs* hey, it makes sense to me. (Chopper was initially going to figure that out before they attacked Shiki's palace, but it never fit quite right. I might make it a separate one shot, or maybe an omake at the end of a chapter someday- What would you all prefer?)

Somehow, at the end of Strong World, Luffy manages to levitate in the air for an insane amount of time, even by One Piece standards. So I left Billy with Luffy and had Kaku in giraffe form rescue Nami- I even foreshadowed it by having Luffy ride Kaku over the ravine in the previous chapter, and Kaku figuring out how to use geppo and soru in full giraffe form. (Pretty sure Devil Fruit rubber could stand up to natural lightning without a problem, and Billy's not only got natural immunity, but Luffy acting as insulation against said lightning. Yeah, shaky physics again, but it's One Piece, and most rules of the normal world go out the window anyway, I just thought the floating in mid-air was pushing it. It's sad that's the only part of the movie I nit-pick at.)

Yet another flashback to what happened at Enies Lobby, I killed off Hattori (Lucci's Pigeon, if you didn't know) I'm so sorry! (And in hiding in case Lucci ever finds out, pretty sure he likes that bird.) Once again, this was not an exact memory of the events, though Kaku did remember a few key details.

So, Next up, we've got a bit of a break, Kaku will bond some more with the crew, and we'll probably reach the Redline next chapter as well.