Luffy was shocked. He didn't want to believe it, but the wound in his side begged otherwise. It was bleeding pretty badly, but it was nothing life-threatening. A majority of the others were also injured in various ways. Sanji was the worst off, with a nasty gash across his torso. Chopper was fussing over it, so Luffy knew he would be alright. But Zoro was another matter. Something wasn't right with him. Luffy decided to try and capture Zoro and snap him back to how he used to be. "Gomu gomu no..." He wound up his arm. "Pistol!" He shot his arm out. Confusion crossed Zoro's face as his captain's arm wrapped around him.

"Nemuri Boshi!"

Usopp's cry was not unnoticed by the swordsman. However, being unable to see or move meant he was unable to dodge. Robin used her power to create arms around his head, forcing his mouth open. Once the pellet entered his mouth, it was only a short while before Zoro fell asleep, Luffy setting him down as he did. Chopper ran over to him, taking in everything that might have caused Zoro to act as he did. As he went, he bandaged up any new injuries Zoro had sustained. He had just removed the bandages from the blind man's eyes when his examination was cut short. They heard the click of heels on the steps. The conscious pirates turned and mentally prepared themselves for battle, expecting to see Aira. Instead, down came a younger woman, no older than Nami. Her hair was light pink and she wore a similar dress to Aira's, only it was covered in ribbons instead of frills and it was red instead of blue. She pouted at them. "You've ruined it."

Five of the Straw Hats looked at her blankly. Robin just looked on, her face expressionless. The girl in front of them continued as she walked towards Zoro. "He was supposed to kill all of you. Starting with that one." She pointed at Usopp, who hid behind Sanji.

"But, I guess since that doesn't seem to have worked, we'll just have to heal all of you."

She touched Zoro's throat, and he began coughing violently. She placed a small glass vial next to his mouth as he began to cough up a deep red liquid. Once his coughing calmed down, she corked the nearly-full bottle and placed it in a pocket.

"What was that stuff?" Chopper's voice shook. Though very petite, she was somehow intimidating.

"Oh, just a bit of blood-lust." She answered him as though talking about the weather. "I had been hoping for a better show of you all killing each other." She pouted again. "Instead, the stupid long-nose had to go and put Roronoa Zoro to sleep."

"Afya, I told you to be polite."

The Straw Hats spun to see Aira behind them. "H-h-how did sh-she get there?" Usopp stuttered.

There was only one staircase, and no-one had seen her walk past them. She smiled evilly. "Allow me to introduce my sister, Afya." She gestured to the young girl next to her. Afya waved cutely, making Sanji melt despite himself. Aira ignored him and continued. "Now that you have seen her, you will have to die, unfortunately." She sighed. "I had hoped that we could simply enslave you, like we've done for the others in the mansion. However, we can't risk your escape." The crew's eyes grew wide as she seemed to just disappear. "Prepare yourselves."

Suddenly, Luffy, Nami, and Sanji were thrown against the wall from their position near Zoro.

"Afya."

Aira appeared again, holding Sanji against the wall by his neck.

"Zoro is still a possibility. Take him upstairs."

As Afya moved to pick up the sleeping swordsman, Robin crossed her arms. "Ocho Fleur."

Hands sprouted at Afya's feet, pulling her backwards and causing her to fall. Once she was immobilized, Robin used several more hands to move Zoro to her. While she was distracted, however, Afya moved her hand onto Robin's sprouted arm. Robin felt a prick as a special needle pierced the skin, alerting her to Afya's plan. The arms around her vanished. Afya stuck her tongue out at Robin in a rather immature way. She then got up and ran at Robin, who now saw that the girl wore a ring that had a needle extending out if it. It was that needle that had been placed in Robin's arm. She looked at Zoro's neck. There was a small hole where Afya had 'touched' him. There was a good possibility that she had used the needle there as well. As Robin was examining Zoro, he gave a slight groan. His eyes opened, revealing their cloudy, mint green color. Sadness flitted across Robin's face as she recalled the deep, emerald green those same eyes were three days ago. She wasn't able to dwell on it for too long, however, as Afya came at her again.

::::

After a moment, Zoro realized someone was holding onto him. It wasn't a hard grip, unlike the annoying girl he had unfortunately come to know, so he guessed him nakama had come to save him. As he became more alert, he realized a few things. The first thing he realized was that he heard fighting in the background. There were the definite sounds of Luffy's rubbery body dealing some blows, and the occasional explosion as Usopp launched a projectile. He also heard Nami berating Sanji for his uselessness against the girls. Girls? There was only one. The second thing that he realized was that his throat hurt like hell. He guessed that the annoying girl had done something new to him. He grunted and moved to stand on his own. He was pleased to find his legs no longer shook. The person who had been holding him spoke, revealing herself to be Robin. "Swordsman-san. Be careful."

Three objects were placed into his hands. He grinned when he realized that she had given him his katana. He slipped the sheaths into his haramaki and drew Wado. "Robin." He said her name quietly. "I'm taking you up on that offer to help me."

Robin smiled. She created an arm next to him and took his hand. "Where do you want to go?"

"About three feet to the right of her."

Robin frowned. "Which one?"

The confusion was evident on his face. "The hell? I thought there was only one... Whatever. Whichever one is closer."

Robin nodded. "I'll create a line. Just hold my arm."

Zoro did so, and at the say-so from Robin he took off, Wado glinting in the dim light. Aira saw him going for Afya, and ran to her sister. To the eyes of the Straw Hat crew, it seemed that she pushed Afya from a long ways away. Her eyes flashed angrily. "Afya! Use your power on the woman's Devil Fruit ability." She told her sister. "Let me enlighten you about our powers." She said, not even dodging as Luffy tried to punch her. Luffy's face showed pure confusion as his fist went through her. "I ate the Kaze Kaze no mi. A logia type. Afya ate the Toru Toru no mi." She continued through multiple efforts of assorted crew members trying to attack her. "Mine allows me to create and manipulate air currents, as well as become air, as all logia types can. Afya is able to take anything she wants from a person, whether it's their money, their power," she grinned evilly. "Or their personality itself. Her blood-lust sauce was taken from one of the numerous pirates that we've tamed."

Nami looked at Robin. I knew it! She yelled mentally. They are pirates!

Luffy glanced at Zoro, who was still being led by Robin, then glared at Aira. "So you try to take pirate's freedom?" he yelled, outraged.

Afya answered him. "No. I heal them."

This didn't subdue Luffy. "How does taking who they are heal them?"

"Piracy is an illness. I heal them."

Robin could swear everything stopped. Afya continued, seemingly oblivious. "Our parents were killed by piracy. That's what Nana and Sissy told me. Before Nana died too, she said that piracy was a terrible illness! Sissy helped me learn to use my power to heal piracy."

Usopp was the first person to speak after the long silence that ensued.

"So, you think that piracy is some terrible illness?"

Afya nodded.

Sanji walked over to her and took her hand. "We're not ill."

She looked slightly confused. "But you're pirates!"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean we're ill. Can't you take any illness straight out of a body?"

Afya thought for a moment before she nodded.

"Then try to take all the illness out of my body." Sanji told her, face deadpan.

"But Sissy said if I do that, you'll die!" Afya gasped.

Sanji grinned at her. "Afya-chan is nice to worry about me, but I doubt I'll die."

Though the doubt was still evident in her face, she obliged him. She placed her needle into his arm and closed her eyes. She opened her eyes a little while later, shocked. "You really aren't sick." Her face was filled with wonder. The wonder changed to anger as she realized the cause of her misunderstanding. "Sissy! You lied to me! All those people..." She cried as the scope of what she'd done filled her head. Sanji hugged her close. He had hoped this wouldn't happen. He never liked seeing girls cry. After a moment, Afya stopped crying and pushed Sanji off of her. She ran over to Aira and hugged her. At least, that was what the Straw Hat crew thought. This thought was proved wrong after Aira began to scream. It was a terrible sound. Everyone flinched away from it, Zoro covering his ears as well. After what felt like an eternity, Aira fell to the ground. A small bottle was in Afya's hand. It was filled with a bright, blue-green liquid. The crew was speechless.

"I took her power." Afya explained. "If you want to kill her, do it."

Luffy looked at the little girl, nothing but sincerity on his face.

"Why would we do that?"

Those five words caused her to burst into tears again. She ran to Sanji and buried her face in his shirt. He did all he could to console her, though he had a rather interesting look on his face, as though he wasn't sure whether he should feel uncomfortable, or ecstatic.

"She seems to like him." Nami noted bemusedly.

Zoro was not quite so amused.

"Would someone tell me what the hell is going on?"

::00::

A/N:

Oh my god that was a long chapter!

I hope you enjoy it!

Reader Reviews!

-BrindyB

No problem! And voila! Here is more! :D

-Red Voident Dragon

There you go, there's their powers. ;)

I hadn't seen it coming either, for a while. It was one of those cases where the story basically said, "You know what? I'm going to do this and there's nothing you an do about it."

I've just finished with exams and other testing, so hopefully updates will become more common.

-MASSEXPLOSION

Ehhh... No. I'm not that crazy... ^-^;

-Vivi chu-ie

Yay! Smiles! :D

Yes, Zoro would be really upset... Ehehe... You really think that the blood-lust sauce was creative? I kinda thought it was cheesy... But I'm glad someone thinks it's good!

But in other news, REVEAL TIME! I hope it's as good as you hoped. :3