Ok, so, I've obviously not left the story, despite the long delay(again). I plan to update when I can, now that I've got my writing mojo back, but I can't guarantee any consistency with the updates. Sometimes it may take a couple weeks, others a couple of hours. I've also decided that the big secret behind Dante appearing in the OP world will be found out when the crew meets Aokiji, instead of Kuma. I'll be doing something a bit different with him. Anyway, because of the long absence, the monotony of these beginning arcs, and generally just a desire to get things moving along, I'll be skipping the rest of the Kuro arc and just give some glimpses back at it later on. The Baratie arc will also be cut short in favor of learning more about the sort of person Dante is.

BANG!

My eyes snapped open and I sat up at the sound of a canon going off. "What are you doing?" Zoro asked. He appeared to have been woken up as well and was now asking Luffy what was going on.

"I'm trying to shoot that rock," Luffy said with a pout, "But I'm not very good at it."

I stood up with a sigh as Usopp went to help Luffy. My hand went to my arm and the bandage wrapped around it. I frowned at the memory of how I go the one when we were fighting Kuro. Jango had thrown one of his discs at me and I'd brought my arm up to block it. It worked, but sliced through my skin. It wasn't the wound itself that I worried about though.

"Everything okay?" Nami asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I looked at her with a small smile, "Yeah, I'm fine." It was the truth. I was perfectly fine. That was the issue. The blade cut through my skin...but nothing else. It had shattered instead. It felt as though it had stopped bleeding so I decided to go and change the bandage, hoping to get a look at whatever was going on with my arm.

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I picked at the edge of the new bandage as we sat in the galley. The others were talking about getting another crew member. I'd paid attention long enough to realize everyone...with the exception of Luffy, was talking about a cook. After that though, my thoughts went back again to my arm. My arm. My arm. Was it my arm? I honestly wasn't sure. It felt like my arm... but at the same time, the only thing that seemed real about it was the skin. Everything else... everything underneath the skin, as far as I could tell, was all metal.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as someone shouted outside. "Come out here you pirates! I'll kill all of you!"

Luffy was the first to go see who it was, and I followed right behind. We were on a ship in the middle of an ocean... I wanted to know how anyone was on the ship.

"Who are you?" Luffy asked as I walked up next to him. On the main deck was a guy with sunglasses and a sword. He looked pretty pissed off too.

"It's none of your business to know who I am!" the guy said as he leaped at us and swung his sword. Luffy jumped forward and over the guy and I just jumped back and slammed against the wall.. The guy ignored me and turned to Luffy, yelling about us trying to kill his friend. As he charged, Luffy jumped up again.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but, stop destroying my ship!" Luffy yelled as he grabbed the guys head and threw him into the wall.

I looked to my left as Zoro walked out and looked down at the guy laying on the deck. "Johnny? Is that you?"

"Big bro?"

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Apparently Johnny had been using the rock Usopp blew up as a shelter while trying to take care of his friend, Yosaku. Nami was really irritated, not only with Johnny and Yosaku, but Luffy as well. They didn't seem to have any idea of how to survive out at sea... and Luffy intended on becoming King of the Pirates. He wasn't exactly off to a great start.

When we mentioned we were looking for a cook though, Johnny was happy to tell us about a sea restaurant called Baratie, and we set out for it. When we got there I was actually quite impressed with the ship. It was large, decorated, and looked like a giant fish. Everything about it pretty much screamed 'restaurant.'

We were all apparently to caught up in looking at it that we didn't the marine ship that had pulled up until it was right next to us. I looked over and saw a guy looking over at us. He held up his fist and I could see that it looked like he'd had a piece of iron attached to his knuckles. Hey, it wouldn't be the first or oddest thing I'd seen attacked to someone's limb since getting here. "I am Lieutenant 'Iron Fist' Fullbody," he said, "Who is your Captain?"

"I am!" Luffy shouted back, "I just finished my pirate flag two days ago."

Fullbody just huffed and looked a Johnny and Yosaku before talking more to himself than them that he'd seen the two 'shabby' bounty hunters before. They apparently took insult to the comment and decided to teach Fullbody a lesson. I just sighed and shook my head as they charged and jumped across to his ship, only to get pummeled so hard they flew back onto the Going Merry.

A bunch of papers fell out of Johnny's pockets and I watched as Nami asked what they were before picking one up. As he explained that it was a bunch of bounty poster, I noticed that Nami wasn't really paying any attention. She was staring at the one she'd picked up and her hands had balled into fists, crumpling the sides of the poster.

"Hey you guys, this is bad!" Usopp shouted, getting our attention, "Those Marines are pointing a cannon at us!"

I only had enough time to turn my head before I heard the blast of the canon going off and saw the steel ball hurtling towards us. I froze up and could only watch as it came nearer, until Luffy jumped up and placed himself in its path.

"Gomu gomu no... Balloon!"

Luffy sucked in air and his body literally expanded until he was the size of one of those giant beach balls. The cannonball hit his stomach and bounced off as he shouted, "Take this back!"

It would have been really impressive... if he'd sent the cannonball back toward the marine ship. Instead it bounced off and flew directly at the Baratie, impacting with a loud crash.

"Oh, geez..." I muttered as I heard Nami sigh loudly. This was brilliant. We hadn't even gotten to the restaurant yet and already Luffy was causing wanton destruction. I wasn't too worried about Luffy getting in trouble, I just hoped that no one had been hit by that thing... and that they'd still serve us. I was hungry.