Well, remember when I asked for votes between Majorly AU, or Canon AU … well, as of this chapter, that vote is closed. The winner is Canon AU (meaning certain parts of canon will not be violated, despite this being an AU story) Those of you wanting Majorly AU, well, someday I might write it as a separate story from this one. Not any time soon, though, I've got another story I'm going to be working on whenever I catch up to the manga on this one …

Warings!: Alternate Universe, Character Deaths, Fanfic Author's Head canon/fanon, … again, if you haven't noticed this by now, I'm seriously worried about you.

Strange Currents

"You know, I thought Aqua Laguna was terrifying, now I'm starting to think that was the nicest phenomena on this sea." Kaku groaned, not even bothering to get off the grass after the latest incident with insane waves caused by sea kings. (Sea Kings that were far bigger than they had any right to be, on that note, and he was going to kill whoever had written the record books for CP9 use because they assumed certain sea kings couldn't get any bigger.)

"We're in the clear for now, though." Usopp panted, from where he was collapsed next to Kaku. "This sea is insane …"

"Shishishi, that was fun!" Captain Luffy laughed while Roronoa complained that he didn't get a chance to attack one before heading up to the observation room, and Kaku tilted his head to look at Usopp.

"I'm surrounded by monsters." Usopp grumbled, before getting trampled on by Captain Luffy, who wanted to play now that the danger was over. Kaku got up to head back into the men's bunk room to finish up the bottle version of Going Merry. He'd do it on the deck, but Captain Luffy's games tended to get pretty wild.

Chopper was curled up on one of the bunks, having been up since it was his night shift the sea kings had appeared on. Kaku looked at the tiny reindeer for a moment, and wondered how old he really was- he didn't know the average lifespan of a reindeer, but most animals grew in what was commonly called 'dog years', a rate much faster than an average human. Just because the log book (which had a few random pages dedicated to favorite foods, blood types, flowers Robin thought the others might be (and monsters, which ironically had the Captain as a dragon before the crew found out his lineage), smells, sketches of both Merry and Sunny; and a page with ages and birthdates) said Chopper was 15, didn't mean he actually was- Kaku personally had him pegged as a little younger in human years than animal ones. (Of course, there was the argument about emotional maturity developing slower than physical, but that sort of analysis gave him a headache- Blueno and Kalifa had been better at it.)

Shaking his head, he turned back to the kotatsu and finishing the model Going Merry, blinking when he found a small collection of model trees with tiny orange balls. Models of Nami's tangerine trees, he realized, glancing at the small note that was under them.

Can't forget these, Nami would never forgive you. ~Usopp

"…" Kaku stared at the note and the trees for a moment, trying to figure out the motive for Usopp making them. It took a long minute, before he realized that this was a peace offering of sorts, like Usopp sketching Brook's old ship when he saw Kaku was struggling.

It became a very delicate process, inserting the tiny model trees onto the already inserted ship, he'd put the sails up once they were in. While he waited for the glue to dry, he was a little surprised when Franky walked in, carrying what looked like a medium sized tool box.

"Repairing something?" Kaku asked, things did tend to get stressed a little bit beyond normal sea-faring amounts (came from having so many insanely strong and reckless individuals on one ship, and Kaku had been utterly embarrassed the day he'd been the one to break a glass) and Franky kept up with the repair work easily.

"Nope, I figured I'd give you this now, it would be easier than having you come into our workshops to ask for tools all the time." Franky deposited the box next to Kaku with a small grin, and opened it with a flourish.

Kaku opened his mouth but no words came out, the top opened to reveal a stand for holding a bottle (adjustable, he noted with some shock), and the box had drawers with spaces for tools he was currently using, one drawer was even a tray for holding paint and paintbrushes. It was the bottle-making kit he'd dreamed of as a kid.

"Why?" He finally managed. (This crew seemed to have the only people in existence that made his ability to form sentences seize up. He couldn't remember the last time he had been so often surprised- he was pretty sure it was during the awkwardness that was puberty during CP9 training (which was when they started explaining seduction methods, and Kalifia had started with the 'sexual harassment' lines).)

"For better or worse, you're part of the crew giraffe-bro." Franky said calmly, reclining at the kotetsu. "We take care of our own."

"… I'd noticed." Kaku stared at the box, then at Franky. "But that doesn't explain why you would give me anything." It really didn't, and even though Nami was the only one who seemed to charge for anything she gave, which he'd noticed that no one had ever paid, and there wasn't a list in any of the log books he'd read so far that monitored the 'debts' that she said were owed to her. He didn't quite believe Roronoa when he said the debt was imaginary, though, given Nami always referred to a debt the swordsman owed to her when she wanted him to do something.

That didn't mean that they gave things to each other out of the goodness of their hearts, there had to be some sort of string attached, his CP9 training insisted, though Kaku honestly couldn't come up with any sort of motive for Captain Luffy, Chopper or, oddly enough, Sanji. (Brook's motive tended to be the fact they both had seen comrades die around them, and the skeleton wanted to help. Kaku had figured that out fairly quickly, but honestly didn't mind the skeleton popping up and playing music.)

"I forgot you CP9 agents were a cautious bunch." Franky was studying him. "Look at it this way, a small crew like this, if there's something you need, and one of us can help, we will, just like if I or Reindeer-bro need something that you can do, you'd help, right?"

Mutual aid for mutual benefits, Kaku realized, and just like that a few things clicked into place in a way that made him want to hit his head for not putting it together quicker. Robin's explanation that Captain Luffy trusted them to do their jobs without him telling them to. The way Captain Luffy had just assumed that Kaku could use the Rokushiki techniques while in full giraffe form.

Why there was seemingly no hierarchy on the ship, because the Captain trusted that if someone could step up to do a job, they would without him having to say a word. They didn't wait for orders, because they knew what they had to do to keep the ship, and the crew, sailing.

For Kaku, who'd spent most of his life not doing anything without or before orders, this concept was oddly jarring. It was why sometimes he felt more like an outsider than part of the crew.

"Right, I would." Kaku said, realizing that he'd probably been silent a moment too long as Franky seemed to be staring at him expectantly. "I just, I don't know what you'd need from me that you couldn't already do?" He felt he didn't have anything to offer to the crew besides CP9 information and his Rokushiki abilities in a fight. Franky had every aspect of a shipwright down, there wasn't much his Galley-La experience could add to that. As for his intelligence gathering abilities, Robin could gather information quicker and seemed to have a better grasp on what was necessary for the crew than he did. (As for swordsmen, both Brook and Roronoa were far more capable than him, his own skills had been due to him devoting more time on increasing his rankyaku abilities than any real desire to be a swordsman.)

"Well, I can't be in two places at once." Franky noted. "Usopp's no shipwright, he's good with tinkering and assisting me, but I have to teach him the correct methods for certain things as we go sometimes. Icebrain wouldn't have let you get to Dock One if you weren't capable of working without being overseen. You could do a project to do while I work on another."

"Coming from the man that built a bridge in how many seconds?" Kaku pointed out, a little annoyed. He appreciated them trying to make room for him in the crew, but a part of him railed a little at being on the complete bottom of the Hierarchy now that he was thinking about it.

"… I think you misunderstood me, Kaku." Franky leaned forward. "I'm not saying you'd be my assistant, just that if you see something that needs doing, especially when I'm doing something else, you could do it without asking for permission. Usopp, if you'll remember what I just said, isn't a shipwright, but when he sees something that needs tinkering, he works on it and only asks questions when he needs help. Sanji fixes things in the kitchen without asking me, unless it's something he knows he can't fix.

"The point I'm trying to make, is that you don't need to ask or explain, we trust you to do what needs to be done." Franky stood. "Think about it, you look like you need to."

Franky was halfway out the door when Kaku spoke up. "Thanks, Franky." He left with a grin and a wave.

Kaku turned back to the Merry in a bottle and gently moved her from the sort of stand he'd made to the one on the tool kit.

Trust. It was an odd concept, and one that Kaku just now realized had been completely shattered back at Enies Lobby. He had been raised to trust the orders given to him, to trust that even if the mission was suicidal, it would be for the good of the World Government. Oddly enough, he had trusted Spandam, though it had been that no matter what the man did, he wouldn't turn on those under his command, and not that he was capable of doing anything other than passing out orders and screwing up.

He hadn't trusted that the Straw Hats would show him mercy, he had hoped that they would (and even if they hadn't, he had hoped that everything he'd witness them do meant they wouldn't kill him outright) and he'd been cautious about putting any sort of reliance on them when he first started to actually interact with them on a frequent basis.

Kaku fixed the sails inside the bottle, staring at the jolly roger painted on the sails (courtesy of Nami, when she found out why he'd been looking at the old sketches of Merry, and having heard from Usopp how bad his drawing skills were) and realized with an odd lurch that now, he did trust the Straw Hats, but he was still holding back from interacting with them more than he had to- unless they cornered him and forced him to talk. (Or he was stuck on an Island where being split up was a bad idea and even for a CP9 agent isolation was disturbing.)

With Going Merry now completed in the bottle, Kaku gently corked the bottle and sealed it. As he was putting things back in his new tool box, he noticed something else. Two more lockers had joined the rest, one decorated with a giraffe on the front, the other a whale. (He felt himself smile as he placed the tool box into the locker with the giraffe, it already contained his original clothes, the formal wear, and the clothes Nami and Robin had adjusted for laundry day- the garish shirt was torn up to be rags.)

"Kaku, is it lunch time yet?" Chopper mumbled as he shifted, then sat up in his bunk. "I'm hungry."

"I think it's soon." Kaku smiled, and then held up the bottled Going Merry. "What do you think?"

"Awesome! It's Merry!" Chopper then tilted his head. "Without all the damage, she looks a little odd." Chopper observed.

"That's right, she was already damaged by the time you joined." Kaku remembered from the logs the detailed description of the damage Merry had received just by entering the Grand Line. "I'm going to go put her in the library."

"I'll come with you! I need to look up a few things to fix the rumble balls for you- I think it's because your giraffe form is different from a reindeer." Chopper followed him out.

"Why would that make a difference?"

"Giraffe's have four stomachs, like cows. According to the devil fruit book Sanji has, turning into a ruminant does mean gaining the four stomachs in the full form, and I observed that you had two stomachs in the hybrid form. Reindeer and Humans only have the one. I'm thinking you might be losing some of the potency because Rumble balls are digested and metabolized so quickly, the extra stomachs when you transform means it does so faster." Chopper explained. "I didn't take that into account the first time, I just adjusted the formula based on your size."

"Huh." Kaku blinked. "So, do you have to increase the dose or what?"

"That's what I'm going to have to figure out, I don't want to increase it too much, though. You still have two left?"

"Yep." He hadn't used them during the week spent with Luffy- it hadn't really been necessary and he'd spent more time as a full giraffe trying to train up that form.

"Keep them, they'll work in a pinch if you need them, but I still don't recommend taking more than one in a six hour period."

Kaku had nodded as they entered the library, and Chopper made a bee-line over to his collection of medical books. Kaku quietly put the bottle in the stand on the other end of the shelf, leaving the middle stand open.

"Are you going to do Sunny next?" Chopper asked, coming over with a stack of books.

"I think so, need help getting all those to your infirmary?"

"Nope, I've got them! See you at lunch!" Chopper smiled. Kaku almost headed over to the log books after he left, but something made him stop. He'd almost gotten caught up, he'd finished reading about Jaya and Skypeia, and then made it as far as the beginning of the Davy Back fight they participated in, but after that was when they'd arrive at Water 7, and Kaku didn't want to read about that anytime soon.

Besides, he needed to train some more with his full giraffe form, the minimal amount of training he was doing wasn't going to cut it for the long run. Heading out to the grassy part of the deck, he noticed that Captain Luffy and Usopp were now fishing. Or, Captain Luffy was, Usopp was telling some story about a sea king that attacked a kingdom and the King decided it was a bright idea to sacrifice his daughter to it. (Kaku wasn't that impressed with the story, neither was Captain Luffy, apparently, because the story soon changed into something very odd.)

Slipping into his full giraffe form had gotten easier, and he started by stretching out his legs- only to fall over because Giraffe legs were not the most stable things in the world, and he over compensated trying to keep from falling. "Oh, Come on." Kaku muttered to himself, managing to stand himself back up, and start stretching again. Kicks from normal giraffes could dislocate and break the jaws of lions; he needed to know his full range of motion to see how flexible he could make this form.

Next came stretching out his shoulders (and neck), this worked out a little better. The problem was the amount of mobility he had. There was a set amount where he could stretch out his front legs to the side before he ended up hitting the ground- though he quickly turned into his hybrid form to avoid hurting anything.

At this rate though, he'd have difficulty doing any of the limited fumi-e techniques he knew with the full giraffe body.

Standing and shifting back to his full giraffe form, Kaku almost fell over again- this time because Captain Luffy had noticed him and launched himself into him.

"You're doing better!" Captain Luffy noted, having seen the way Kaku had fallen over when trying to bend back on Merveille. He hadn't laughed, just asked how normal giraffes did anything, which Kaku only faintly remembered from the one field trip they took to the zoo (it was to blend into a crowd and report back on various things, bit like a complicated scavenger hunt).

"Hmph." Kaku huffed, a little annoyed that Captain Luffy was swinging from his neck, but now used to it. "I still fall over."

"You're doing better." Captain Luffy said again, swinging onto Kaku's back, and Kaku's ears twitched as Usopp snorted.

"What?" Kaku narrowed his eyes. He'd forgotten Usopp had laughed at him- if Usopp tried to make fun of him again … oh, wait, they were comrades now. He needed to figure out what was the appropriate revenge.

"You look like a jungle gym, with Luffy doing that." Usopp informed him.

"A Giraffe jungle gym would be cool." Kaku glared at Usopp, wishing he'd go back to not liking him again.

"That would be awesome!" Something hit Kaku's back leg, and he turned to see Chopper, who'd just come down the slide. "Nami says a storm is coming, we need to get ready." Chopper said, turning into his reindeer form, and apparently measuring his hooves to Kaku's, before looking up.

"Great, just what we need." Usopp moaned, packing up the fishing equipment as Captain Luffy rocketed up to the observation room to get Roronoa.

The storm came swiftly, but … it wasn't a normal storm even by Grand Line standards.

"What the heck, Candy Rain?!" Nami yelled, not the only one to get pelted with hard (and some gummy) candies from the sky.

"It's yummy!" Chopper announced, munching on some. Captain Luffy's mouth was wide open and filling up rapidly, while Usopp very quickly gathered what he could from the deck. Sanji was trying to get as much in a barrel as he could, muttering about desserts. "Robin, Kaku, try some!" Chopper suggested, holding some out to them.

"Might as well." Kaku muttered, taking one that was yellow. It reminded him of saltwater taffy. "Not bad."

"Hmm, not too sweet either." Robin noted, hers had been black. "This one's like licorice."

"We're going to have to clean the sails, aren't we?" Franky groaned from his spot by the helm.

"We could just have the Captain Luffy lick them clean." Kaku muttered.

"He might eat the sails as well, and then we'd be in danger of starving to death." Robin smiled. Kaku felt a chill go down his spine as Usopp yelled at her for stating their deaths so calmly. Devil Child, right.

The rain cleared up, revealing a large circular rainbow.

"Oh, wow, awesome!"

Kaku joined in at grinning at the sight. He'd have never been able to see this as a CP9 agent.

The moment was annoyingly short lived, however, as Nami noticed something about the water.

"Sea Snake Currents!" Nami yelled, and Kaku rushed to grab a line. The currents were like individual rivers, twisting and shifting about. One could never tell if they were going to change direction or collide with another. Well, Kaku couldn't. Nami somehow could.

It took them over a day to get out of them, and once Nami confirmed they were still on course, everyone pretty much collapsed on the deck, looking up at the stars studding the night sky. Captain Luffy was laughing, but it sounded a little tired, and both Usopp and Chopper were struggling to stay awake.

Kaku groaned and pushed himself up. "I've got watch, don't I?" There was a drowsy affirmative from Nami, who was being pulled by Robin towards the girl's room, and Kaku used geppo instead of the ladder to get to the observation deck- his arms were pretty much dead at this point.

Kaku stretched in order to stay awake, but it was a long hard battle until day break.

"Anything?"

Kaku blinked at Roronoa as he entered the room, his mind taking a few minutes to realize that Roronoa had spoken. "Pretty calm." Kaku rubbed his eyes, and blinked again as Roronoa shoved a thermos at him. "Thanks."

"What are you going to do about what Kuma said?" Roronoa asked, and Kaku choked, the only one (he thought) that knew was Brook, and the Skeleton had said he wouldn't tell.

"How did you-?" Kaku started, turning to meet a very unimpressed look from Roronoa. (Reminded him of Lucci's and Blueno's expressions, whenever they thought Paulie was an idiot.)

"I charged Kuma after you got slammed into the wall. I heard what he said. What I want to know is what you are going to do about it?" Roronoa started lifting one of the lighter weights almost absently.

"… I was going to send a short message out, the next Island we reach, see if that gets a response- I don't know who it is, and well, Kuma might have been lying."

"What sort of message?" Roronoa asked, and Kaku wondered if maybe he should have brought it up with Captain Luffy while they were alone together for a week. (Except he hadn't really been ready to trust the Captain with this.)

"Code, let them know I'm alive, safe, and wanting to hear back from them. I don't think it would be safe, for us to actually meet." Kaku gripped the thermos. "I'm not going to sell any of you out."

"I didn't think you would, Pasta Machine." Roronoa said, surprising him. "Just wanted to know when you were going to do something about it."

"Heh, I almost forgot about that." Kaku chuckled, he was awful at coming up with attack names on the spot. "… Why didn't you think that?" Out of all of them, Roronoa was the only one Kaku hadn't really pegged, as there hadn't been much interaction between them.

"You'd have done it already." Roronoa said with an odd certainty.

"… I was undercover for 5 years, you know."

"I know. But if your goal was our deaths, you had a week to kill our captain and blame it on those weird animals." Roronoa responded. "Wouldn't have to wait five years, if there's a way to do it quicker, right?"

"Right." Kaku nodded, before realizing what he'd just said.

"We all joined the crew for our own reasons, we're not going to judge you for yours." Roronoa tilted his head. "Your watch is over, by the way."

"Ah," Kaku stood, "Thanks for this." He held up the thermos.

"Whatever. Get some sleep, Nami thinks we should be approaching another island soon." Roronoa lifted another weight, and Kaku didn't say anything as he went down to the main deck.

He had the odd feeling that Roronoa had just told him off for thinking too much.

More like an interlude than anything. Zoro gave me trouble. Next up should be the arrival at the redline, Caimie, flying fish and intro to shaobondy(SP) archipelago.

A Note on Crew positions, after some research:

Captain- mainly responsible for leading the crew into endeavors that were successful. If not, the crew got rid of him.Luffy is obviously the captain.

First Mate- They were not actually the second in command of the ship, but the one that stepped up in battle if the captain fell to an enemy. Like the captain, he could be gotten rid of if the crew didn't like him. Zoro fills this definition of first mate.

Second and Third Mates- If you really wanted a hierarchy based on mates, these two are often filled by the next strongest fighter and the Quatermaster. But they're not nearly important as some would have you believe.

Quartermaster- the real runner of the ship, kept track of supplies, accounts and what have you. Nami fills this position along with being the navigator.

Navigator- not only kept the ship on course, but drew charts. Nami's official role.

Helmsman- the 'pilot' of the ship, able to keep the ship on course by being the most 'in tune' with the ship, they could tell just by the feel if there was anything wrong with the rudder or currents. Franky currently fills this roll, but my money is that Jimbei will take over this roll if he joins the crew.

Boatswain, or Bosun- in charge of keeping an eye on the rigging, sails, and overall maintenance of the ship. Sometimes in charge of the security of the ship, as well as the discipline of the crew. While Franky does fill the first part,Robin and Zoro tend to keep an eye out for enemies.

Master Carpenter: In charge of repairs and making things as necessary. Arguably overlaps with the boatswain. Usopp used to be this before they got Franky.

Arguably, 'Shipwright' can include both of those, but generally, they didn't go out to sea, which is probably why Franky's dream was not only to make a ship but to sail on it as well.

Master Gunner- In charge of cannons, both maintaining and firing of them. Usopp fits this role.

Cook- usually a lame or injured member of the crew. The cook was in charge of the cabin boys, and, if there was no surgeon on board, he was the one responsible for hacking their limbs off. While Sanji is the cook, and is concerned with their nutrition, he's not lame, there's no cabin boy to boss around, and he's not going to use his knives for anything but cooking.

Surgeon- alias ship's doctor, a very rare position to get filled for pirates, usually they made do with either the cook or the carpenter hacking their limbs off. Naturally, our dear Chopper fills the bill.

Scholar- even rarer than the surgeon, the scholar was the one that supposedly kept up-to-date records of the cultures and places they were heading too, as well as knew about those that went before them. Usually just combined into the Quatermaster, Navigator and Captain's jobs, Robin fills this spot being the Archaeologist.

Spymaster- This person's job was to get information- opponents, treasure, etc. occasionally perform acts of sabotage. Nami and Robin tend to fill this, but Sanji seems to be the most adept at not being noticed.

Look-Out- Usually some injured or lame sailor that could still move up and down the rigging, and didn't mind sitting in the crows-nest for hours. Zoro tends to fill this role the most, even now that they've got set watches on the Sunny.

Striker- in ye olde days, this was just an islander whose job was to catch fish and kill the Spanish. That was it. (Maybe be a translator.) Currently, Kaku's leaning to the 'kill enemies' angle of this position, with elements of 'spymaster' and bosun thrown in.

Tailor/Sailmaker- Someone on board capable of sewing had the job of repairing clothes and or the sails. Depending on the ship, sail making was an actual job, or just another under the bosun's description. Nami occasionally acts as a seamstress for the crew.

Cooper- If the crew was really lucky, there was someone who could make and repair barrels on board, and not just the carpenter. These guys were invaluable given how much stuff was carried in barrels. No real need, though, they've got Franky.

Musician- Long voyages would get boring if there wasn't any music, which helped keep up morale, the musician was also in charge of making sure no one got lazy or unfit by sitting around. Brook, our long awaited musician, fills this role.

Mates: Almost every position above could have a 'Mate', which was an apprentice that helped whoever in their position.

Deck-Hands, Gunners, Sailors: The sailors that did the jobs under the eyes of those above and their mates. How many depended on the size of the ship.

Cabin Boys- young boys that obeyed the cook and did the chores. Occasionally, this overlaps with Powder Monkeys, who had the job of running gunpowder to the gunners while the ship was under attack. There is no one on the crew that does this.