Ok, this chapter might not be the best one I've written, but on the other hand, it is twice as long as the last one, so I hope that you'll enjoy it. And again, I hope I got Him right enough.

I did have an unusually hard time capturing their characters this chapter, so I just thought I'd issue a warning for possible, slight OOC-ness, but I hope that it's not that bad...

Been a while since I had wavering confidence in my fic, geese...

(You: Ouch J, That one was bad.

Me: I know it sucked, so shut the fuck up.)

We were back at the ship, and Frey had gone back home. We had all enjoyed a good night's sleep and we were now back on track. Proof of this was that Nami was currently complaining over the raised cost of the newspaper, Usopp was developing his Tabascoboshi and Ruffy was trying to steal one of Nami's mikan, with no luck since Sanji was guarding the grove.

Zoro and myself were playing Race, as per usual. But this time, two more had joined in. One of these two were Cat, who had decided to take a break from tinkering with my shoes that she had stolen earlier. I still hadn't got them back. The other one was on a surprise visit, and I have to say that I was quite surprised to see that Zoro could see him. That Ruffy could wasn't that big of a surprise, though. The others, on the other hand, were convinced that we were going insane, talking to the air. They also kept a good distance from us. Well, it's not as if I could blame them. He gave off that kind of ominous air about that repelled even the bravest of men. I had developed a sort of immunity through the years, though. He was really nice, actually, once you get to know him. Very few has the chance, though, which is a pity. And thus, the rest of the crew decided to avoid us as being around our visitor gave them strange chills down their spines. Despite not even being able to see him.

HOW PECULIAR.

"I have to admit, this is the first time I see this happen," Zoro agreed.

I nodded, having counted about four times now. "64-64-59-60. A draw."

Cat purred slightly in agreement. "This match was fun. Damned even."

EVEN INDEED.

I chuckled. Playing games with him, any game, was quite fun. He was one of the only two people in the worlds that had ever beat me. Taking out another deck, I said," well, how about trying a round of Monty Python Fluxx?"

Zoro nodded slightly. "Sure, it seemed interesting. So, what are the rules?"

Cat, having played it before, burst out, "'I want to sing!'"

I hit her over the head for being stupid while Death took it upon himself to explain. It was kind of hard to tell, him being a skeleton and all, but I think he smiled. IT'S VERY SIMPLE. THERE ARE FOUR TYPES OF CARDS; KEEPERS, ACTIONS, NEW RULES AND GOALS. YOU PUT KEEPERS ON THE TABLE IN FRONT OF YOU WHEN PLAYING THEM, THE REST ARE QUITE OBVIOUS.

I nodded. "You start off with two cards, and the starting rules are draw one, play one. The rest of the instructions ARE ON THE CARDS. I halted myself, then turned to my old friend with a pissed off expression. "Curse you!"

MANY HAVE. WHAT SEEMS TO BE THE MATTER?

I frowned at Death in annoyance, tic-mark on my forehead. "When I'm in your company, I start using THE VOICE unconsciously."

If he had had eyebrows, he would have raised them. YOU SEEM TO BE IMPLYING THAT THIS IS MY FAULT.

And then the more colourful individuals of our little gaming group[1] thought it appropriate to express their annoyance of our little argumentation if sorts in a simultaneous outburst. "Shut up and deal the cards already!"

I grunted and complied, but just as I had shuffled the deck, Ruffy's voice rang across the deck. "Land ho!"

I smirked and dealt the cards anyway, smirking to myself. "Loguetown, eh? That was quick." Out loud, I said," Well, a game of Fluxx doesn't take too log, so we have time for a round or two."

HOW APPROPRIATE, Death added thoughtfully. MY NEXT APPOINTMENT IS IN LOGUETOWN.

"Oh, yeah?" said Zoro, chuckling slightly at his hand. Bet he got an amusing hand. Lucky. "Who's the client?"

YAMAMOTO KAZUKI, AGED 84. HEARTATTACK.

I nodded with a rather neutral expression and started talking with a distinct, random accent after drawing my card. "There are worse ways to die. I play 'Outrageous fake Accent'[2] followed by 'Nude Organist'[3]."

Zoro's PoV

"How do you know Death anyway?"

We has docked at Loguetown's harbour and the seven foot tall skeleton who, apparently, had been Death himself, had left to get on with his own business. Busy trade, I figure. Embla and myself had left the others to visit the weapons store. Seemed she needed something from there too.

She chuckled, as if amused by some private joke. But I could also see a bit of deep rooted grief in her eyes as she spoke. "Long story. Let's just say that we go way back."

And that was that. It seemed that I wouldn't hear the story in quite some time yet. It got me wondering just how long she'd buried her past within. I didn't want to really drop the subject yet, though. "What's your relationship, anyway?" Why I was interested, I wasn't too sure. But she was one of the very few individuals that had caught my interest, and any chance to gaining a piece to the puzzle, I would take.

And she just smiled mysteriously and gave me an answer that quite surprised me. "We're gaming buddies, but also teacher and student."

I was dangerously close to tripping when I heard that answer. "Teacher?"

She chuckled, amused. "That's right. He taught me weapons, after all."

I was, to put it simple, dumbfounded. What. The. Hell? I didn't know where to begin. Questions popped up in my head like bubbles in a pot of boiling water. How? What? Where? WHY? Now wait just a sec... "Death?" I tried to gather myself. This was silly. You met him before, stupid. Why are you so surprised? Focus. "Now wait just a minute, Death taught you weapons?"

She simply nodded, grinning widely, obviously trying to contain her laughter. "Yup."

I tried not to ask why, or even how, as I sensed that it was a subject that she would rather avoid, so I said the first question of a different nature that appeared. "But doesn't he just use a scythe? You use a lot of other weapons aside from that."

She just shrugged. "Culture and belief is no solid thing. It changes over time. Gotta be flexible."

Typical. I should have expected something like that.

Embla's PoV

"But your style isn't limited to weapons, is it?"

I smiled slightly. When I thought about it, it had been unavoidable that it would come to this sooner or later. Especially as Death had decided to make a surprise visit earlier. Said he had some time for free and felt like going for a round. I was fine talking about my fighting style, but I didn't want to go in too deep on the subject as it was closely linked to sensitive matters. I kept my gaze straight ahead as I answered his latest question.

"That's true. I practised Aikido, a defensive martial art for ten years, just half a year longer than I trained under Death. So I simply combined the two styles into my own."

"I see." And that was it. He didn't ask any further on the matter. I guess he must have sensed my discomfort. It warmed my heart, knowing he understood me so well. It made me feel safe.

But my attention was soon directed towards some commotion ahead. It was Tashigi, being attacked by two, rather large and ugly thugs. My hand automatically went to my bandana where I stored a set of my throwing knives, ready to help her if need be. Some things had changed since I arrived, after all, so I couldn't let my guard down.

But the scene played out as normal, as she completely owned the thugs. Before tripping over her own feet.

As the scene played out before me, I swiftly snatched Tashigi's glasses from Zoro's hands just as he saw her face, and handed them to Tashigi, after which I lightly punched him in the head. "I know she looks just like Kuina, and I understand your surprise, but you dun' have to crush her glasses for that."

He just grumbled, rubbing his head where a nice bump had already formed. He muttered something along the lines of "I still find it unsettling how you just know my past from some book while I barely know anything about yours."

I ignored his annoyed mumbling as Tashigi giggled slightly. "You two are such a cute couple!"

Zoro, having recovered from my little punch earlier(which had had a lot more effect than I intended it to have... Again with this world and having strange effects on me), utterly facefaulted, while I gave her a look before breaking down in a serious laughter-fit.

This, however, seemed to offend her somewhat. "What's so funny?"

Recovering somewhat, we both exclaimed, me amused, Zoro shocked by the idea, "COUPLE?"

Clutching my stomach, taking a few deep breaths, I squeezed out, "Him and me? A couple? The very idea!"

Zoro, now seemingly quite amused as well at the suggestion, added, "Not happening."

Tashigi almost looked disappointed. "Really? That's too bad, you'd make a great pair!"

"They'd more likely make it as a comedy duo," Cat suddenly cut in. Where she came from, do not ask me. However, I was rather interested in getting my shoes back, but Tashigi got first in reacting to her sudden appearance.

"The Cat spoke!"

Zoro just sighed. We'd got pretty used to this reaction by now. I smirked slightly and said, "She says that she can't."

To which Zoro facepalmed, Cat casually started to clean her fur and Tashigi said, "Oh, I see. Well I guess she would kno-" then her brain caught on, "That doesn't make any sense!"

Zoro gave me a look. "This joke's getting old."

I just pretended I didn't hear that and turned to Cat. "Hey, where's my shoes?" I didn't even bother asking what she was doing here. This was Cat we were talking about. Cats tend to do whatever they feel like doing.

"Sorry, not done upgrading them yet." Why am I not surprised? And what kind of upgrades does one do on shoes anyway? I mean, It's not like one uses them for much, except for protecting your feet while moving about without using a vehicle, (actually, then too) and while fighting to make sure your feet does not take too much damage when kicking.

But then Tashigi shot a glance at her watch and decided that she had to leave. Well, we didn't have all the time in the world either, so we left for the weapons store. Where ever the hell Cat went, I don't know. She went wherever she felt was interesting enough to go. Cats.

When we entered the store Zoro walked straight up to the counter. Having already seen the scene numerous times I decided to not pay it much attention until the interesting part. Instead I walked around, searching for the objects of my need. Well, no, not shoes. You don't buy shoes in a weapons store, stupid. Why I didn't just go over to Earth to go and fetch one of my other pairs? It's not as if that was my only pair of shoes. Well, my cross-dimensional glove had run out of juice, so to speak. It was currently recharging, but it would take a short while until I could travel with it again. It was annoying, but I was used to walking about barefoot, only usually in a forest and not in a freaking city.

But anyway, what I was looking for certainly wasn't shoes, but tonfa. Bladed steel tonfa. Like Talim in Soulcalibur kind of tonfa.

Just as I was in the middle of my search, I heard Tashigi enter. But I didn't pay her any attention as she retrieved her own sword, Shigure, and fawned over Wadou. I just focused on the collection of tonfa before me. tonfa. One of my definite favourites. It was a weapon that allowed high speed and grace as much as it required it.

Speed...

I remembered my brother's words as he gave me the bag of empty books and all of that fudge. 'Your journey to God speed'... Once again I clutched my necklace, as a scene from my childhood sprung up into my mind. It was, for once, a happy memory.

Me and Lynn, my best friend, and only human friend from earth I'd ever had beside my brother were sitting in a garden, beneath a great blossoming apple tree in early May. The sun was shining brightly and birds were singing.

"Hey, hey, you know what?" a young me, only seven years old with the golden blond colour of my hair intact told my friend enthusiastically. "My brother told me that colours is really just light reflecting off of things, and hits our eyes, and that's how we see! Sort of, that's what he said!" Even as a child, I had always been somewhat interested in science.

Lynn giggled brightly. "Oh yeah? That sound weird, but interesting. So what about it?"

The little me chuckled brightly, obviously having thought of something crazy. "So it hit me, how would things look like if one moved even faster than light?"

"Stupid," Lynn said, giggling at my apparent stupidity. "If you moved that fast, everything would be a total blur. You wouldn't see anything at all. You know how it is when you look out of a car window? Blur. All a blur. It'd be like that, only worse."

I stuck out my tongue at my boring friend. "Lynn, you're no fun..."

This made the both of us laugh, a lot. After little me pouting for a while.

I shook my head, chasing the memory off. It was an unusually happy one for me, one that warmed my heart and put a silly grin on my face, but anything connected to Lynn would sooner or later make my mind wander to that incident. And that was not something that I wanted to remember. And almost as a blessing of sorts, Tashigi appeared out of nowhere, eyes gleaming.

"That! Is that-"

I turned towards her, puzzled as to what she could be so excited about. It wasn't as if anything I had would be of any interest. If not... I strapped off my sword and handed it to her. Since this arc would include some fighting I had brought along my whole arsenal. "Is this sword of any interest?" I asked her, sceptical.

She eagerly took it in her hands and, consulting her handbook, quickly identified it. "This! Yes, it must be! Raikaze, one of the Ryou-Waza-Mono 50!"

No I was genuinely surprised, and that was really saying something, since it was difficult to get me surprised in this world these days. That random bandit that I had robbed had wielded a Meitou of all things? That was just... wrong.

But Tashigi didn't notice my reaction and just went on. "My, you two must be really great swordsmen to wield such great swords!"

I chuckled a bit, taking my sword back. "Thanks for the compliment, but I am no swordsman. I'm a weapons specialist, and do not limit myself to any single weapon. My companion is a great swordsman, though. If you're going to be impressed by anyone, he's the guy."

Zoro just laughed at this and shook off the comment. "You found what you were looking for yet?"

I shook my head. "Not yet. You?"

He returned to the barrel of discount swords. "Still looking." Soon, he paused, having sensed Kitetsu, and pulled out the sword, sending Tashigi in another wave of sword-fangirlism. Seriously, she was like Sanji in a way, only with swords instead of girls. She was such a nerd. Heh, Tashigi, you just earned a golden star in my book. I stood with my arms crossed, a knowing smirk playing across my lips. This scene was an interesting one that I'd be darned if I missed.

Tashigi fawning over Kitetsu, check. Tashigi raging over the price, yup, passed that. Clerk explaining why, trying to talk Zoro out of buying the sword, to no avail, heard but not listened to. No, I was observing Zoro. On the surface, he seemed to be inspecting the sword, but when I took a closed look, I could sense the battle of wills going on. Zoro's will, however, is, as we all know, harder than steel, though, so the outcome was rather predictable, not even counting the fact that I had seen the scene before and knew what was going to happen. Soon having dominated the sword's will, Zoro broke into a wide grin.

"I'll take it."

I chuckled to myself at the others' reactions. They were being rather silly. 'Rather' being in massive sarcasm quotes. I mean, couldn't they see that Zoro had already made up his mind?

So this led to Zoro testing out the sword's loyalty, by throwing it into the air, sending it into a spin, and held out his arm beneath the spinning blade. Most would probably had taken him for a lunatic, challenging fate like that.

But I call Showoff. Seriously, one didn't even need to be a swordsman to see that the sword was, indeed, loyal. Well, at least it impressed the clerk to the point of giving him his finest blade, Yubashiri, for free. As a thanks for the good show.

Zoro smirked in satisfaction before turning to me. "Hey, have you found what you were looking for yet?"

Chuckling, I turned back to the tonfa sets. "Well, you were putting off quite a show, so I couldn't help but watch it. No, not yet I haven't."

Strapping his new swords to his haramaki along with Wadou, he chuckled slightly, obviously in a good mood. He then crossed his arms and leaned back against a wall, waiting patiently. But I could swear I could hear a faint snoring after a few seconds.

I just shook my head and turned my attention to the tonfa in front of me. Most sets were made out of wood. Cherrywood, as per tradition. But then my eyes landed upon a set of steel ones. Bingo. And indeed, bladed too. They were perfect! They had a sharp kind of air to them, with a plain appearance at first glance, but when one looked closer, they were truly a work of art. The blades had a faint, peculiar pattern, which originated from the folding of the steel. Damascus steel was my bet. One of them were made of dark, almost black steel, the pattern on the blade resembling flames. The other one of the set were made of a real bright steel, almost white, pattern resembling swirling smoke. A Yin Yang symbol adorned the handles, which were made of cherrywood, the surface resembling the bark of a tree. My smile widened. I took one in each hand and started to twirl them a bit, testing the feeling. They felt perfect. Smooth. I turned around, needing some space to try out some more complicated patterns. Soon I fell into a flowing dance, using not only the tonfa, but the whole body. Then I sped up, testing how the flow got if I went faster. It felt so natural it was silly. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. I stopped my dance and turned to the clerk. "How much do you take for these?"

"One million for both."

I flinched. Damn, that was a lot more than I had, even if I added what Zoro had rented from Nami, that I might be allowed to borrow, under the circumstances that I took care of the freaking ridiculous interest. I sighed inwardly, disappointed. Looks like I'd have to settle for a simple pair of wooden to-

"But I'm in a good mood today. They say that a blade choose their owner, and those looks like they were forged for you. I won't charge you for them."

This came as somewhat of a surprise. The greedy man had just given away four high-quality blades. For free. A chuckle escaped my throat. "Says the man who tried to buy Roronoa Zoro's most priced possession for a ridiculous sum. Here you go," I said and threw him 200 000 beli. "For the sheaths."

Zoro just snored away until I hit him over the head. "Huh? Morning already?"

"Stupid, it's midday. Anyway, I'm done."

And so we left the store, leaving the two law-obedient individuals in the building to let my words sink in. Or, well, we didn't get all that far.

"Wait!"

Well, I should have seen that coming.

"Roronoa... So, you're Roronoa Zoro!" Tashigi seemed to overcome her weak knees and stood up, a betrayed look on her eyes. But to be honest, I'm kinda surprised that she didn't make the connection earlier. I mean, how many people in the world are called Zoro and wields three swords? Not many.

Zoro punched me in the head for giving his identity to 'random people', but I had a reason. Sort of.

Now serious, Zoro turned to Tashigi, his right hand resting on his swords. "What of it?"

Tashigi looked him straight in the eye, showing anger and strong will. "In the name of Justice, I will claim Wadou Ichimonji!"

Zoro raised an eyebrow, but not entirely surprised. "Then why don't you try-"

I stopped him there by raising a hand. I liked Tashigi, she was a nice person, and I didn't want her as an enemy if I could avoid it. Sure, she was a marine, and I was probably quite unable to change anything, but hey, a girl could dream, right? "Please, just let me do the talking, OK?" I murmured to Zoro. He grunted in slight annoyance, but stepped back.

I turned to the young lady. "Are you sure about this challenge, Ensign Tashigi?" I smirked in satisfaction at the swordswoman's reactions. OK, attention captured, check. Carefully choosing my words, I went on. "You claim that you want to keep the Meitou from the hands of evil, but how can you judge who's evil or not?"

Her gaze hardened, but I think I saw a flicker of doubt in her eyes. "That's simple. Bounty hunters, who uses their swords for money, and pirates, who plunder and destroy, making innocent people's lives miserable. They are all-"

"Evil? While all Marines, who fight for justice and peace are all Warriors of Good? Aren't you just fooling yourself?"

She flinched noticeably. I was being a bit hard on her and I knew it, but I was speaking my mind, and to make my point to someone who truly believed in the government's so called 'justice' I had to be a bit ruthless with the words.

"While I will admit that most pirates are total douchebags that don't deserve to sail under the sign of the skull and crossbones," I went on, "and most of the marines fight to uphold justice, one cannot paint the world in black and white like that. There are countless exceptions out there. True, this base on this here island is a good one, I'll give you that, and Smoker's justice is what I'd call a good one, even if you, like most marines, takes all pirates for evil. However, I've seen countless of corrupt marines, who exploit civilians to satisfy their own greed and hunger for power. And I've also seen quite a lot of pirates who just travels around the world in search of adventure and treasure, chasing their dreams. The only crime those pirates ever made, really, is to follow their own beliefs and refuse the rules the government has written down. Those kinds of pirates are actually little different from Smoker, if you think about it. I've also seen bounty hunters who does not care for the bounty, but fight for justice and their own beliefs, just like the best of marines." My mouth twisted into a slight smirk, bangs shadowing both my eyes, not only the one usually covered by my unruly fringe. "Marines are good, Pirates are evil, Bounty hunters are greedy, the world doesn't work that way. If you truly believe that the world is that black and white, then you're getting dangerously close to Akainu's philosophy, that shitboot." I spat out the name of the Admiral. There were few who I hated as much as I hated him.

And the effect was- well, I wasn't too sure of what fire I'd lit in her mind, really, but I did give her some food for thought, and beat up her sense of reality kinda ruthlessly. At least it seemed that she wasn't going to fulfil her challenge, which was a start. I smirked and finished off my little lecture.

"Never judge people by the title they bear. Everyone always has a reason for the things they do." And with that, I deemed my job here done and turned around, addressing my companion. "Well, then, shall we go? I believe that our Captain has got himself into some trouble."

Zoro just shook his head with a slight smirk. When we were some distance away, he said, "That was some tongue-lashing. Impressive speech, by the way."

I just shrugged indifferently. "I simply handed her a piece of reality." And possibly saved you from a more annoying opponent than you would have, I added to myself.

'Yeah, and made yourself the target of her grudge,' the annoying voice in the back of my mind, probably my second thoughts, said. Sometimes, I just wish the bastard would shut the hell up.

And suddenly, at a crossroad, all Strawhats just happened to walk into each other. Including Cat. But excluding one person.

"So, where's that guy?" Zoro asked, because someone had to ask.

I tapped him on the shoulder before pointing towards the execution platform. I had said that he had got himself into trouble, now didn't I?

There was a slight moment of 'WTF?' and overall natural reactions to public displays of utter stupidity. After that, Nami, sensing the storm coming, quickly decided that she and Usopp would be more useful keeping our ship ready, so they ran back to the Merry-go while the fighters stayed. Cat, for some reason, decided that she felt like kicking some butt too. However, it was raining and I was, unfortunately barefoot, so I wouldn't be able to run as quickly as usual, which was troublesome since our captain was just about to get his head chopped off, and time was precious. Sure, the more sensible part of my brain told me that it would be fine, that a freaking lightning bolt would hit the platform at the last second, but the bigger part of my brain was telling me that things might not be turning out that way. My presence alone had changed the story in some ways, and I had no way of telling in which ways. This part of my brain was screaming at me that my Captain was in danger, and I had to freaking do something about it. So I let the story take control of my actions for once, and lunged myself into the fray.

And so, I plowed my way through Buggy's forces, but no matter how many I seemed to cut down, or how fast I worked, the rain slowed me down enough to make me unable to reach the platform in time. My voice of reason tried to tell me that it was no use, and I wouldn't need to bother, but I ignored it. I was too caught up in the story to notice. All I could see, and hear, was my Captain- Ruffy, who uttered what seemed to be his last words.

"Usopp! Nami! Zoro! Embla! Sanji! Cat! Sorry, but I'm dead."

I froze. My nakama froze. Time itself froze, or, well, that's what it felt like. The blade fell, but, I could see the sparks, and my reasoning was back in control. I relaxed.

The lightning struck.

I don't think I've been more relieved in my whole life. 'I told you so,' said the nagging voice in the back of my mind. I ignored it. Instead, I paid attention to what Sanji was saying.

"Oi, do you guys believe in God?"

A perfect opening for a piece of Embla wisdom. "That bunch of useless, good-for-nothing load of coach potatoes? They wouldn't bother, take it from me."

Zoro just grunted in slight frustration. "No time for joking around, we have to go!"

And Ruffy, having emerged from the pile of rubble just laughed, unaffected by the lightning, not affected in the least by the mortal danger he had just been in. If I had thought about it, Death had told me about his appointment in Loguetown, so I shouldn't have worried. He hadn't showed up at all. I felt kind of stupid, actually.

And Cat felt sort of annoyed as she was dripping wet, and we all know what happens to cats who are wet.

But then I got an idea, which made me snicker mischievously. I turned to my present nakama and said, "Guys, there's something I wanna do. I'll catch up with you in a moment." And without waiting for a reaction, I turned back to the battlefield. I just hoped the muffler was intact...

I was happily running back to the merry-go with slightly aching feet and my newly... acquired muffler. I mean, seriously, that muffler was way too awesome for someone like Kabaji. It totally deserved better than being an accessory for some fodder enemy like him. Besides, he probably had more than one muffler anyway.

'Well, you only had one pair of shoes.'

I still have only one pair of shoes, and shut the fuck up.

Anyway, it was a handy muffler, with tons of little pockets for storing small little weapons, such as throwing knives and the like. A perfect muffler, in other words. Now, if I could just get my shoes back..

As I was running towards the ship, I spotted Ruffy and Smoker, right as Dragon stopped Smoker from dealing the final blow to his son. I grinned at the scene and was just about to open my mouth to say hello, but then a strong wind blew past, sending me and Ruffy flying. Straight into the other monsters, conveniently enough. And so, we managed to get to the Merry-go on time.

Soon the guiding light came into sight, and we knew that soon, soon we'd be there. We just had to pass this storm, and...

Sanji thought that this would be a fitting moment for a little ceremony and brought out a barrel of sake. Man, I would have preferred beer or mead, but what the hey. He called for the others and said, "We're finally entering the Grand Line. I," he placed his foot on the lid of the barrel, "to find All Blue!"

Ruffy placed his foot on the lid as well. "I, to become the Pirate King!"

Zoro smirked and followed suit. "I, to become the World's Greatest Swordsman!"

My usual smirk was replaced by a wide grin as I placed my own right foot on the lid. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't told the others of my own dream yet. "I, to become Faster than Light itself!"

"I," said Cat, still wet as hell, wore, for once, a smile on her face as well. "to invent a Time Machine!" While she was unable to place a foot on the barrel, she had hopped up on my leg and placed her tail on the lid instead.

"I," said Nami, her foot joining ours, "to draw a Map of the World!"

Finally, Usopp added his foot to the lid. "I- I, to become a Brave Warrior of the Sea!"

With a wide, determined smile on all of our lips, we raised our feet(or, in Cat's case, she held on to my leg while raising her tail) and, in unison, called out for the world to hear, and didn't give a shit that no one was listening.

"Let's go!"

Our legs fell down on the lid.

"To the Grand Line!"

We were sitting at the dinner table and discussing the Reverse Mountain, in which I had little interest. The Reverse Mountain was a mountain with canals flowing upwards, and that was that. But then I sensed it. A stranger's presence. Still, it felt slightly familiar, but it did not belong here. "Guys," I said, disrupting the conversation.

Zoro stood up, dead serious. So, he had sense it too. Not that it was any surprise.

"There's a stowaway on the ship."

[1] Death is a skeleton clad in a large, black robe. Embla has got white hair, is 'quite' pale (she is very very pale) and is dressed entirely in black and white. Cat has a turtle-coloured coat. Any questions?

[2] Fluxx is a pretty famous game. If you haven't heard of it, I'm actually kinda surprised. Anyway, the card (a new rule) reads: If you speak with an Outrageous Fake Accent during your turn, you may play 1 extra card. Play 2 extra cards if you've kept your accent going since your previous turn.

[3] A keeper. Thought I should clarify, for your sanity, or whatever is left of it, since you've read my fic this far...

Finally done! That was chapter 21, what did you think? Oh, and I'll leave it up to you guys to figure out which score belonged to who in that game of Race in the beginning of the chapter. And I was really done writing this chapter this Wednesday, or perhaps it was Tuesday, but it took some time to type down the damn thing in word. Did you see the length of this thing? It's eight damn pages long! In size 10.5! Easily my longest so far. And I was silly enough to buy me a neon orange pen. Write with a bright orange on white paper will cause severe burns on your eyes. Don't do this at home, folks, I'm just saying. And it's not as if my handwriting makes it any easier. People occasionally tell me "You don't need to encrypt your stuff," they say. "No one can read it anyway." Should I take that as a compliment?

Anyway, enough ranting. Here's the SBS

From SYA (yes, I shortened it down, it was too damn long to spell out): XD Of course some attractions had to get destroyed... It's Luffy/Ruffy we're talking about here~! I have a question though: What's Godspeed? Embla's dream I mean.

J: As I said this chapter, it's FTL speed. Faster Than Light. She wants to outspeed Kizaru, in other words.

Two questions from Seraphiel:

#1: Does Cat allow cuddles? :3

Cat: Depends on my mood.

J: Ok, I'm not even going to ask how the hell you got here, but thanks for answering.

Ok, so comment #2: This was by far the funniest chapter I have read so far x3, You've really grasped the character's personality in the story and I love how you exaggerate Usopp's POV x3. I wish the chapter was longer though ): Anyway, Great Arc! I really enjoyed this one ^^. SBS: Will Annoya make a reappearance? :3

J: Thanks a lot, I needed that ^^. And she probably will, as long as there's things in drawers to get stuck, she will. I just have to get to the appropriate moment...

Aand, that's it for this week, folks! Can anyone guess who the stowaway is? And no, I won't pull another OC out my ass for quite some time yet.