Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.

Author's Note: Regarding the currently unfolding story arc in the manga. If someone in Oda's story has the same Fruit as one of my characters, ignore them and pay attention to mine :D


"Really?" Rez said dejectingly. "You're really a user?"

"Well," Zan said bashfully, "if you put it that way you make me sound like a weirdo…" Zan smirked across the beam at Rez as the waves swayed him around. With the whip staff in heavy hand, Rez and Zan steered the ship closer to the shore and further into the beating waves. The dinghies below were restocked with pirates and turned away from the advancing warship steered by their commander and friend.

"I sure hope we don't get sunk!" Lisa shouted over the waves and laughed heartily. The other pirates grimaced and continued rowing at full pace.

"NOT FUNNY, CHICK!" one pirate yelled. "How about helping us row so we don't get hit!?" Lisa fell down to her butt and leaned against the short rail of the small boat.

"Nah, I'm good" she said lazily.

"How are you a captain!?" shouted the entire boat. Suddenly, something shot past the dinghy at blinding speed and knocked the boat at a near perpendicular angle to the churning waves. The boat didn't capsize, but the resulting wave did tip it on its side, flinging all the riders out into the salty water. From behind the fleet of overturned dinghies thundered out a massive THUD!!

Rez and Zan took a brief moment to look at each other with deadpan faces as the floor started slanting backwards. Rez slid slightly towards the door, while Zan didn't move at all. Another moment passed before Zan defused and started out the door.

"HEY!" Rez shouted as the whip staff began moving on its own. "Where the hell…"

"I'll see what's going on!" Zan shouted back. "You keep us on course!" Rez sneered and fumbled to keep the staff from moving anymore. Zan rushed out on deck and looked over the edge, careful to keep his feet at least partially in the woodwork. Standing on the rail of the upper deck was a towering figure with crossed arms and a tilted head. Zan saw the shadow from a flash of soft lightning and looked over. With a chorus of rumbling thunder, Bard's image came into plain view with a curious expression.

"Weird" Bard said quietly to himself. "I guess this ship's a lot heavier than it looks…" He hopped down with his finger on his chin and began casually striding his way across the deck. "Lot's of bodies…must've been a party."

"Hey there!" Zan shouted. Bard darted his head around and Zan raised an arm in greeting. "How'd you get here?"

"Me?" Bard said seriously. "I ran. I'm trying to knock this ship over, but to do that I need…" Bard continued to ponder until an idea brightened his head. He took a good, long look at the main mast and walked around it several times. He sized it up, angled it appropriately, and then nodded with a triumphant smile. "Can you steer the ship?"

Zan pointed at himself comically and nodded.

"Good!" Bard shouted, flashing a positive thumb up. "Turn this ship sideways to the docks!" Zan looked confused. "Then get ready to sink or swim, because I've got a plan to tip this rig." With his dastardly juvenile smile Bard hopped away and over the deck with a quick salute farewell as he plummeted downward. Zan rushed over to check on him to see if he was okay, but saw nothing below.

Likewise, the floating pirates were confused as all get out as they tried desperately to overturn their boats and paddle the rest of the distance to shore.

"That was weird!" Lisa shouted from her seat on the underside of her former ride. She just finished ringing out her captain's hat when the pirates had mustered their strength and flipped the boat halfway. She hopped up and kicked it the rest of the way and rested comfortably down as it steadied out.

"Weird nothing!" one pirate shouted. "This water's cursed or something!" As they all spat out the salty water and continued to drift out from each other, the water parted strangely yet again, this time from Bard's unnamed method of swimming quickly underwater. "…paddle…" muttered the frightened marauders of the high seas.

Zan popped back in the room with Rez to redirect the ship as per the crazy young man's request. "Turn it ninety-degrees!"

"To where?" Rez shouted. Zan put his hands in his pockets and pulled out a cigarette and lighter, his previously lit one being victim of the rain and water.

"Doesn't matter," Zan said as he paced out the door again. "This ship's sinking…" Rez stared after him dumbstruck and somewhat angry, but turned the ship regardless.

"If I live through this bull…" Rez started under the crashing of the waves and roaring of the sea, "I'm drinking until I can't see anymore!" He dug his feet into the solid marine-grade wood and steel and turned the staff til it bent. The ship turned sharply to the right, much to the shock of the fleeing pirates.

"What's he doing!?" one shouted rhetorically. Lisa watched on curiously and pondered that very question with a finger to her lip as the other pirates rowed her to shore.


Hebimaru sped along across the rooftops, bounding several houses and whole blocks at a time toward the bordering hills. Araly rode along on his back, hanging on for dear life as the wind whipped by furiously.

"I should tell you right now," Araly shouted, "I get seasick very easily!"

"Fare enough" Hebimaru hissed. "We only wish for you to keep a sssteady eye…"

"Well, that seems easy…" Araly said with relief.

"…underwater" Hebimaru finished. Araly's eyes went wide and her brow furrowed. She looked over at Hebimaru's iron masked face with the unmoving, straight-ahead eye.

"Are you kidding!?" she shouted. "I'm not a fish, or a mermaid! Why would I agree to do that!?"

"Lady Kaede requesssted you by name" Hebimaru calmly replied. His jumps became shorted until he was standing straight up like a human pillar on a large, half-crumbled rock formation. "She wasss posssitive of herssself that you could accomplish thisss tasssk."

That hissing's getting annoying… Araly thought, trying to keep her mind off of the supposed task ahead of her. "What do I have to do underwater?"

"Sssupposedly nothing" Hebimaru admitted. "She wishes for you to guard for her."

"But she's the experienced ninja…person" Araly whined. "What kind of weird priorities do you guys have? Find someone weak to guard your own super-strong crewmember!?" Hebimaru reached his long arm around and carefully placed the girl on the ground in front of him. With his massive legs bent and his huge back arched, the tree-sized ninja knelt down and faced the frantic girl.

"Lady Kaede can only do ssso much alone," he started, "and all of us are otherwise busssy. Myssself excluded, she decccided that you are the only fitting person to help usss right now." Araly looked at him with slight worry and curiosity as he rose back up and prepared to turn and jump away.

"But why not you, then?" Araly asked. Hebimaru turned his head and plainly replied

"I can't ssswim." Leaving Araly dumbstruck and full of questions, he leaped away and vanished in a blur of black. Not soon thereafter, another blur appeared and landed down near Araly. She shielded her eyes from the rising dust, which gave way to the slender feminine form of Kaede herself.

"There's no time, sweetie" Kaede started in a rush. She shuffled her hands behind her back and pulled out a small capsule. "Brace yourself and eat this" she commanded. Araly took the pill and eyed it worrisomely. Kaede pulled out one for herself and swollowed it, cringing and shaking as it slid down her throat. Once it was down she jumped off into the water below. Araly shook her head and put on a serious face.

I'm being asked to do something important, she thought encouragingly to herself. Not just by any random woman, either, but someone from another pirate crew! Maybe if I do a good enough job helping her do…stuff, she'll agree to ally with us or…something…

Araly gulped the pill down without effort and jumped without hesitation. "Although, I may die if I do this…" from the middle of the jump to the splash at the end, Araly's scream echoed through the air.

Once in the water, Araly cringed and held her breath with her eyes shut tight. After a few seconds of fearful fetal crouching, Araly opened her eye slightly. She was sinking downward in a perfectly clear sea. She could see the waves cresting above, the massive ship in the distance with the many smaller ships retreating from it…which was odd. She looked below and nearly gasped, seeing a huge metallic construct in the form of a frog with a pirate emblem painted on the back.

Kaede was down at the construct's mouth with a piece of rope in hand that came from its mouth, beckoning her over. Araly kicked up and started swimming downward. Kaede pointed over across the thing's mouth and made a grabbing motion. Araly looked over and saw a similar piece of rope, floating upwards. She nodded and swam over. Grabbing the rope, she looked over and mimicked Kaede's stance with both hands firmly holding and legs ready to lift up. Araly glanced over and waited for Kaede. She nodded, and both women started pulling upwards with all their strength. The 'Kappa's' mouth slowly creaked open, and the water started violently churning from it.


Sasuke dashed back across the mistless town in search of the tavern where everyone was waiting. He hopped along across the rooftops with dazzling speed until he noticed someone doing the same. He rushed over and both figures went to the ground, one nearly three times the size of the other.

"Hebimaru!" Sasuke exclaimed. "It's good to see you after so long."

"Likewissse, Captain" hissed the giant. "I have relocated the Bussster girl with Lady Kaede" he reported.

"Excellent" Sasuke said. "If I could reconnoiter with their captain and debrief him this will all be…" Sasuke was interrupted by a phantasmal figure spinning into scene. As the colors of black and peach and golden stopped blurring, the statue-esque man with the muscles that crumble mountains stood in the open streets. Arms down, feet equal distance apart, chest loose and head slowly rising up from the ground, Bard D. Samekawa!

"YEAH!!" Bard shouted loudly as he broke his calm stance and shot his foot up. Then it came crashing back down onto the wooden floor. He resumed his previous sprinting stance and stared straight ahead, down the clear fareway, at the tiny warship far away on the water as the glistening sunlight came shining over the sea.

"SORU: BUSTER RUSH!!"

And before the two ninja-pirates, he was gone. Even the light seemed to bend after him as he reached the docks within mere seconds of heading out…