I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE – ALL RIGHTS TO ODA

The crew asked Nami who Carina was, and she explained to them that she was an old partner of hers and they would team up to trick pirates and take all of their treasure. This caused both Adrian and Zoro to sweat drop while Luffy just laughed. Nami went on to explain how one time they ran afoul of a pirate who could make chains come out of his hands and they were both captured. Carina promised them she would get the treasure and come back, and the pirates said they would wait till sunset. Carina never returned and Nami was forced to take the pirates to her own secret stash to save her life. However, when she got there, she found her treasure to be missing and the same note Luffy found in the treasure's chests left by Carina. Nami was about to continue on but was stopped by Luffy shouting he was bored and wanted to go to the next island already.

Nami sighed and said fine, but Adrian figured there had to be more to the story. He could tell she didn't like talking about it though, so he decided to let it go for now. They loaded onto the boat with more food supplies from the strange man in the box and set out, waving goodbye as they left.

It had a been few days since they left the strange island and it was currently morning time as Adrian was getting up. Everyone else still seemed to be asleep so he used the time to think back on the journey they have had so far and all the friends that he and Luffy have made. He however then sighed, as he thought a bigger ship wouldn't hurt with all the people that have joined. He looked over at the naked orange haired girl laying beside him. Especially if she wants to keep doing this every night, he thought. He knew Luffy and Zoro were sleeping just 10 feet outside the door and they could be finding out about them at any second at this rate. He decides that everything will work out and lays back down snuggling back into Nami as he pulls her closer to him and she smiles as she cuddles herself into his chest.

After a couple of hours, the rest of the crew had woken up, with Adrian making sure he snuck back outside before they did, and were getting ready to have a simple breakfast together. Nami was clearly not liking the food and made a comment about needing a chef. Luffy agrees and starts singing about a chef but Adrian mumbles that they need a bigger ship with an actual kitchen first. He then hears screaming and looks up to see Luffy shouting that getting a bigger ship with big cannons is a great idea. Adrian dropped his head and sighed under his breath that that isn't what he said. Nami put her hand on his shoulder and smiled and stated that she thought his idea was great. Zoro just shrugged and went back to sleep.

After a few more days and a few more close encounters including Luffy getting up to go to the bathroom late one night and luckily not noticing a half-naked Nami sitting on Adrian's lap as their held their hands to their mouths trying to stay quite as Luffy just passed them by to pee over the side. Nami decided to get brave and started riding him again, Adrian didn't know if she was crazy or just liked the thrill, but he gave in and enjoyed it. Luffy didn't even notice and fell back asleep. Adrian looked up as they were finally arriving at the next island, and its port, Syrup Village.

They docked their boats off the coast of a beach. Nami pointed out that the forward path up through the cliffs should lead them to the village. They get ready to start heading up the beach but then Zoro and Adrian sense something as Zoro pulls out a sword and Adrian pulls out his bow, Luffy at the same time steps back a little to dodge a pellet that strikes right where he used to be. Nami asks what is going on and Adrian replies that they are being challenged, which causes Nami to look confused. Just then a bunch of sticks with a pirate flags shoot up out of the bushes in the cliffs above them and a man's voice can be heard calling out and telling them that he is Captain Usopp and he has 8,000 men in his service. He threatens to unleash his horde of men on them if they don't leave immediately. Adrian smirks and pulls an arrow out of his quiver and places it in his bow and takes aim at one of the bushes.

"8,000 men sure is a lot and you may be able to overwhelm me eventually… but I promise you this…" He states as gives a bloodthirsty look up towards the bushes as he draws his arrow back, "I won't go down easy, and I may not be able to kill you all, but I will bring down as many of you as I can and drag all of you to hell with me."

Zoro smiles and sheathes his sword. Luffy just looks on with a smile on his face and Nami still stands back confused. Just then all of the sticks fall to the ground as the sound of three young voices could be heard crying and running away. Adrian smiles and said that's what he thought as he put his bow back on his back while Zoro commented that he may of went a little too far. Adrian just scratches his nose and says maybe but it still had the effect he was going for.

The man that called out to them before sounded a lot less confident now and soon slipped and fell down the hill before winding up right in front of the group. He was a rather scrawny looking teenager who was wearing brown overalls and had long black curly hair sticking out of his brown bandana. His most remarkable feature, however, was his super long nose.

"Oh! A Tengu!" Adrian stated as he made a bowing motion.

"I am a human you asshole!" The young man yelled out. This caused Luffy to laugh which seemed to irritate the other boy. He pulled out a small slingshot and took aim at Luffy.

"I am the great Captain Usopp! I am not scared of any pirates and I will fight you to death with my 8,000 men!" This caused Nami to point to him and told him to stop lying and Adrian agreed, even if the kid was acting tough, it was easy to see he was absolutely terrified. His lower legs were shaking at a frequency so fast that Adrian's eyes couldn't even keep up. Luffy however, took a more serious look on his face.

"Are you willing to bet your life on that..." he started, causing the young man to look on in confusion and terror. "That's not a toy, and a real pirate should only point it at someone when he is expecting to use it." The words cut the boy to his core and he dropped to his knees stating that he just can't compare to real pirates. Adrian made a joke about who was the one going too far now when Nami smacked him on the head and said it was still him because he threatened kids, to which Adrian replied he wasn't really going to shoot them but Nami just yelled back that they didn't know that. Luffy just laughed and extended his hand to Usopp to help him up as he asked where they could go to get food.

Usopp lead them into the village and to a local restaurant. The group ordered some food and alcohol and were in the middle of digging in. Zoro and Adrian were having another drinking contest while Luffy was swallowing down whole plates of food while he told Usopp the stories of their travels so far. Nami was just enjoying her food and laughing at the antics. Nami then broke up the little party by asking where they could possibly go to get a new ship. Usopp was thinking for a few seconds before he replied that the best bet would be to go to the mansion up on the hill where the richest person in the village lived. He however stated that it might not be the best time because she has been super ill lately. Usopp then acted like he just remembered something and darted out the restaurant door. Luffy laughed and said he was an interesting guy and the group continued to enjoy their meal.

After a while the three little kids that were with Usopp before came rushing into the restaurant saying that they were here to free their captain. They notice the captain missing and hear Luffy say how good the meat was and begin to get scared. Zoro jumps on the opportunity and jokes that they ate him, causing the kids to scream. They immediately look at Nami and call her a witch, which makes her yell at them with sharp teeth, making them scream even more.

"Actually, she prefers to be eaten herself…" Adrian is cut off by a swift kick to his shin under the table by a slightly blushing Nami.

After the kids began to calm down and realize it was a joke, they were much more friendly around the pirates. They said that Usopp must have rushed off to go see Kaya, the owner of the mansion who has been ill ever since her parents died. They stated that he goes there to tell her stories and try to cheer her up as much as possible, but that the caretaker of the manor despises Usopp and kicks him out every time, even going so far as to hire guards to watch the entrances. Luffy decides they should go see the mansion owner to see if they can ask to get a ship.

As they come upon the mansion, they notice the guards at the gate and hide off to the side. Luffy gets a bright idea to fling himself over the gate, and the rest of them grab on to him to stop him but get taken with him instead. They land next to a tree that Usopp happens to be in telling Kaya some strange story about giant goldfish poop. They surprised the girl but Usopp just claimed they heard of his greatness and came to join his crew, which all of them promptly declined. They were getting ready to ask the girl about getting a ship when they were interrupted by the arrival of a man with short hair in glasses and a suit. They figured he must be the caretaker that the little kids were talking about. The man said he would have to ask them all to leave before he noticed Usopp up in the tree. Adrian was getting ready to tell Luffy that it is probably best if they leave when he heard the man make fun of Usopp's father. The Straw Hats stood and watched as the man continued to make fun of Usopp and his dad to the point where Usopp jumps down out of the tree and charges the man, hitting him. Luffy realizes that he knows Usopp's father.

Even after the hit, the man continues to insult Usopp and he tries to go for another punch but is stopped by Kaya yelling at him. Usopp collects himself and begins to leave. The kids and Luffy get pissed at the man but are stopped by Adrian and the others. They apologize for the intrusion and leave as well. They walk down the street a little and stop on the side of the road. Luffy says he will be back and that he wants to go on a walk, while Adrian, Zoro, and Nami rest on the side of the road. They continue to rest there for a little while as they discuss what they should do next. Nami eventually gets concerned about Luffy and wonders where he went. Adrian replies not to worry about it as he probably went to go check on Usopp. The three little kids say that when Usopp gets angry he likes to go look out over the coast as he thinks. Adrian then says it should be fine since that was the direction where Luffy was heading to. Adrian points out that one of the children is missing and the others say he usually shows up screaming about something and right on que the kid is seen running down the street screaming about some weird man walking backwards. The other kids call him a liar, but Adrian looks down the street and indeed sees a man walking backwards towards them.

As the man got closer, Adrian could make out more details about him. He was pretty tall and slim; he was wearing a long blue jacket and had a matching blue hat. He had a weird goatee and even weirder heart shaped glasses. The kids called him a weirdo and he replied he was just a normal hypnotist. This made the kids excited and they asked if he could hypnotize them, which he replied he could. After he did his trick, he did indeed make the kids fall asleep, however he also made himself fall asleep. This made Adrian yell at him for being such a shitty hypnotist.

A while had passed since the weird Hypnotist had left and the group was contemplating what they should do now. They were caught off guard by Usopp running down the street yelling about pirates and needing to protect Kaya. The kids seemed worried since he already did this joke once today, but Adrian jumps down off the fence he was sitting on and tells them to lead him to the coast.

When they arrived, they didn't see anyone on top of the cliff, but Adrian looks over the edge and sighs, seeing his target. He tells the group to follow him as he begins to head down the cliff. They make their way down being led by Adrian who points to their captain laying face first in the ground. The kids scream that he is dead, but Adrian pulls out his staff and uses it to knock Luffy upside the head, waking him up. After Zoro and Nami yell at him about just sleeping like that, Luffy says he doesn't really remember how he got down here in the first place. Adrian explains that they saw Usopp running scared through the village and wondered what they had saw out here. Luffy panics and explains everything about the fact that the caretaker is actually a former pirate named Kuro, and that he intends to kill Kaya to get her fortune with the help of his old crew and some weird Hypnotist. Adrian and the rest of them immediately know who he is talking about.

Usopp appears behind them as he tells Luffy to stop spreading lies and that he didn't think he would go along with it. Luffy was about to ask what he was talking about but Usopp interrupted him and said that the Usopp pirates shouldn't believe something he clearly is lying about, and they leave angry that he tricked them and used Kaya as a pawn for it. After they left Usopp explained that he doesn't want them to get involved in this, saying he went to try to warn Kaya, but she thought he was just trying to get revenge on the caretaker for what he said about Usopp's father. Usopp says that he will not let anything happen to this village and that he will protect it from the attack the next morning. Luffy says that he is a real man, and that they will help him, which Adrian and the rest agree to, surprising Usopp.

The group spends all night setting traps along the coast that they think the pirates will attack from. They even put oil on the ground so the pirates will have a harder time climbing the slope. However, as morning comes and no pirates arrive, Usopp realizes that they are at the wrong coast. He says that there is another coast 3 minutes to the north and Luffy immediately starts running, Adrian realizes he is running the complete wrong way and chases after him. Nami realizes that is the port their ship is at with their treasure and begins to run but slips on the oil and gets ready to fall. She grabs ahold of zoro's sword and pulls him down instead as she uses him as foot hold to get passed the oil. She says sorry but her treasure is in danger as she runs after Usopp while Zoro curses her.

Adrian chases after Luffy for a while until he realizes that they are getting closer to town. Luffy stops and wonders where he is as Adrian catches up to him and calls him an idiot. Luffy said he was heading in the direction that is most cold, and Adrian yelled at him that isn't what north means. Adrian tells Luffy to follow him and that they have already wasted too much time.

Back at the correct coast, Usopp is laying on the ground bloody, wondering why he and Nami were the only ones to get there. The pirates are advancing up the hill and Usopp tries to grab one of their legs to stop them, but the pirate kicks him away and continues up the hill. Usopp yells out for them stop and then witnesses in shock as they all come flying back in a flurry of punches, arrows, and sword strikes.

Luffy, Adrian and Zoro stand at the cliff with angry faces. Zoro yells at Nami for using him to get out of the trap while Luffy yells at Usopp for not telling him which direction north was, which got Adrian to hit him and say he was the only idiot who didn't which way to go. Their attention is brought to Jango the hypnotist as he hypnotizes his crew to be stronger. Adrian was wondering if he could actually increase their strength when he got his answer when one of the pirates broke a part of the cliff with one hit. Adrian states that this should be fun as Luffy dashes past him screaming. Adrian and Zoro are completely shocked that he was hypnotized too. He easily defeats the pirates and rushes towards the ship. He grabs the edge of the figurehead and rips it off, preparing to hit the pirates with it. Jango quickly moves in and hypnotizes Luffy making him fall asleep. The figurehead falls on top of Luffy and some of the other pirates as Adrian and Zoro sigh.

Usopp freaks out that he was crushed but Adrian confirms that he is fine. He however is more worried about the two new pirates that appeared at the top of the ship.

The two figures reveal themselves to be Sham and Buchi, the Nyaban brothers. The rest of the Black Cat Pirates cheer them on, but Adrian can hardly believe two people who look so utterly ridiculous could be a threat. Jango orders them to attack Zoro since he seems like the most dangerous, but they seem terrified to do so. The smaller of the two, Sham charges while screaming that he doesn't want to do this. At the last second however, he switches moods suddenly and attacks Zoro who barely has enough time to dodge. Zoro gets back to his feet and notices that the two other swords from his hip have gone missing and he sees them on the back of Sham. He yells for them to be given back but the man just laughs and says one sword should be enough for one person. Adrian yells at Zoro for being careless but Zoro yells back that he didn't see Adrian doing anything about it.

Before Zoro can do anything though, he notices that the Nyaban Brothers are frozen with real fear. He and Adrian follow their terrified gaze up the slope to see the caretaker staring down at them. He remarks that they are late and that makes the brothers, Jango, and the rest of the pirates scream in terror. Kuro yells at them to shut up and that he will give them 5 minutes to deal with the children that they are allowing themselves to beat by before he decides to just kill everyone himself. Sham yells at Buchi to charge Zoro so they can hurry up and take care of the most troublesome one first. Adrian sighs and sweat drops at how lightly he is being taken.

They rushed Zoro together and were attacking him with fast sweeps of their claws. Zoro wouldn't be able to do much more than block their attacks with just one sword so Adrian rushed in to help out. He hoped onto Zoros back, surprising everyone and used it as a platform to stand on while his other foot came straight up and connected with Shams chin, kicking him back into the cliff. Zoro yells at Adrian about using him as a ladder and Adrian says he should just be more grateful as he tosses Zoro's swords back at him.

"Two on one really isn't fair. This makes it more interesting wouldn't you agree fleabag?" Adrian mocks Sham who is picking himself back up and is stunned when he sees Zoro catching his blades and looks back to notice they are indeed missing off of his back.

"You asshole! When did you take them!" He yells.

"Well, when you are around the people I'm around, you pick up some new talents." Adrian replies as he looks at Nami.

"No matter! Buchi, lets finish this, you go for the swordsman, this one is mine!" Sham yells as he charges Adrian while Buchi charges Zoro.

Zoro defeats Buchi easily with an Oni Giri. Sham gets distracted by this, but his focus is immediately brought back to Adrian as a foot lands right in his face again. Sham charges him again and slashes at him but Adrian dodges by dropping down below him.

"Sorry, but I'm much more agile than my green haired friend. Now you are wide open." Adrian says as he slashes across Shams chest. Adrian notices no blood and predicts the slash coming at his face and blocks it with his sword.

"You are much skinnier than you look." Adrian mocks. Sham laughs at him and gets ready to charge him again, but Adrian sticks his sword up and twists the blade just enough to blind Sham. Sham screams out that trying to blind him and attack him won't work as he starts slashing wildly around him. His eyesight comes back to see Adrian pointing his bow at him.

"No but now you're really wide open this time." As he unleashes a Blunt Force Arrow that slams right into his face knocking him back as Adrian closes the distance in an instant and slashes diagonally down Shams chest.

"There is a limit to how skinny you are." Adrian states as Sham falls down.

Kuro just continues to stare as Zoro, and Adrian point their swords at him and say that he is next.

During this time, Buchi crawled towards Jango and asked him to be hypnotized to be stronger. Adrian jokes that Zoro wasn't strong enough to cut him properly which Zoro joked in response that his fat saved him. A now fully hypnotized Buchi charges Zoro and pushes him back into the cliff.

Nami decides to take this time to sneak and wake Luffy back up. As she is making her way down the slope, she is noticed by Jango and he rushes her and slices the side of her shoulder with his Chakram, the tool that he uses for hypnosis but doubles as blades. Adrian who was watching Zoro fight the buffed up Buchi hears her scream and looks down at her falling, he was feeling a fury in him rise with each inch she got closer to the ground. Nami got back up, gripping her shoulder as she continued her way towards Luffy. Jango chases after and grabs her by the hair and aims his Chakram at her neck as he pushes it towards her. It is stopped in mid flight by Adrian who appeared out of nowhere. He had grabbed the chakram barehanded which shocked Jango. Nami looks at Adrian for a second before noticing the pure anger and hatred in his eyes before she turned and sighed as she continued to go wake Luffy up.

Adrian grabbed Jango by the collar with one hand and used the other to shatter the Chakram. As his hand was bleeding from the shattered blade, Adrian gripped it into a fist and without saying a word he launched all of his anger into a punch aimed directly at Jango's face that connected with an explosion of force that sent him flying back up the cliff slope, landing near Kuro.

Nami wakes up Luffy and he wonders where he is but before he can get an explanation from Nami, their attention is taken to the top of the cliff where Usopp is screaming. Adrian looked up and saw that Kaya had appeared behind Kuro and was talking to him. Adrian couldn't make out what she was saying but it didn't look like she was winning whatever word battle they were waging at each other because she pulled out a gun. Adrian was actually impressed that she could do that, but he could tell Kuro was toying with her because she soon dropped it as he made a move towards her. Adrian tried to move to do something, but a fist shot by him and connected with Kuro on the jaw, knocking him on his ass as Luffy's arm came back and he laughed that he is Kuro's opponent.

As Koro laid on the ground, the three kids jumped out of the bushes and started hitting him in the face with pots and pans. Adrian wasn't sure who was more idiotic, the girl or the kids. Usopp yells for them to stop and they yell that they just wanted to help protect Kaya. Usopp tells them that they can do just that by grabbing Kaya and running into the forest and protecting her. He yells that is an order and they agree, taking Kaya with them into the woods.

Kuro gets up and orders Jango to get up as well. Jango barely manages to pick himself up and Kuro orders him to follow the children and get Kaya to sign the will. He will deal with the kids. Jango agrees and starts walking into the woods after them. Adrian tries to chase after him but Jango orders Buchi to attack. The big man leaves Zoro and charges Adrian and hits him into the cliff wall and charges him again. Adrian manages to use his sword and free hand to hold Buchi back while his own back is pinned on the wall of the cliff. Adrian yells to Zoro that he will take care of Buchi while he goes after the girl, which Zoro agrees. He picks up Usopp on his way past since he knows the woods, but they are stopped by Kuro who says he won't let them pass. Luffy charges Kuro and says he is the one he needs to worry about as he punches at him. Zoro and Usopp disappear into the forest as Luffy and Adrian face off against their opponents.

Adrian lifts his foot and uses it to help push Buchi off of him. Before Buchi can gain his balance back Adrian blitzes him and slices across his stomach. He notices it didn't do much damage and jokes that maybe Zoro was telling the truth about his fat saving him. He determines he will have to give it his all to leave a mark on him as he charges him again. He slides underneath the huge man slicing his leg making Buchi fall to his knee. Adrian gets up and jumps up onto Buchi, using his foot to smash his face as he uses it as a launch pad to jump into the air. Adrian spins and angles himself facing downward as he uses gravity to speed up his fall and explode down in a flash. He puts his hand on the flat back of his sword to brace it and put all of his strength in his slash as he comes down on the big man. He cuts all the way down Buchi vertically, with the increased speed and added force from the fall, he cut him deep enough to make him gush blood as he falls to the ground. Adrian sighs and sits on the ground huffing from the attack. He was glad his plan worked; he wasn't very sure going into it, but it worked out for the best.

Adrian looks up and sees Luffy using a giant boulder to block Kuros attack and one of the weird knifes he had coming out of a glove. He uses the boulder to break the knifes and hits Kuro with it. Kuro gets up and starts doing a weird shaking motion before he fully disappears. The Black Cat pirates are super terrified of whatever he is doing but Adrian couldn't see anything. Suddenly Black Cat Pirates were starting to get cut down and random areas of the surroundings were being cut too. The pirates screamed that this was Kuro's most feared attack as he can't even control where or who he cuts. Adrian side steps one of the attacks as it lands near him and notices that Luffy is visibly getting more and more upset as he gets cut a few times as well.

Nami jumps down from the pirates' ship with a bag full of their treasure and Adrian didn't have to guess what she was doing this whole time. She asks if the fight is over, but Adrian replied she would've been better to stay on the ship as he gets cut across the chest. She rushes over to him, but he replies he is fine, the cuts are not very deep. Adrian surmises that Kuro must not be able to fully control how hard he attacks either.

Luffy had finally had enough and grabs Kuro out of the air and slams him down.

Kuro gets up and tries to do the move again, but he is stopped by Luffy, who uses his body to wrap around Kuro to keep him in place. The Black Cat Pirates begin to cheer for Luffy because they don't want to die. Luffy shoves his head all the back down to where they were, yelling at them to shut up as he freaks them out. Kuro is yelling about his plan never failing but Luffy uses his head as a bell as he brings it back and headbutts Kuro with it and knocking him out. Luffy launches Kuros body back at the pirates and he yells at them to never come back again, which they immediately agree to as they leave. Adrian catches Luffy as he begins to fall, and he smiles at him as he rests on his back. Just then Zoro and Usopp come out of the woods followed by Kaya and the kids, as Adrian and the rest of them ran to great them. They ignored Usopp's lie about how he beat Jango in a hand to hand fight as Zoro told them what really happened. They were just glad they were able to save Kaya and the village.

A few days had passed as they used the time to get their strength back and they were currently sitting in the restaurant eating when Kaya and another caretaker of hers named Merry came in asking about them. She comes up to the table and tells them that there is something she wants to show them.

She leads them to the coast as she shows them a ship, The Going Merry. Nami points out that's it's a caravel type ship. Merry explains it wasn't really designed for pirates, but it should work none the less if they want it. They happily agree to taking it. Merry then goes over each one of them rooms and Adrian is glad to learn that the men and women's room are different, which makes sense to him but after the close encounters he was glad to have a place where they could be safe from eyes. He looks at Nami and she smiles and winks at him. He supposed he should start making up a reason for why he isn't around at night but Merry brings up that there is an emergency exit through a small hatch from the boy's room to the girl's room but could be locked so no one peaks on the girl. Adrian couldn't help but feel that was convenient but figures it will get a lot of use. Merry also starts to explain how the ship works when it comes to steering but all of the men just stare at him blankly. Nami just sweat drops and tells him to just tell her.

Adrian and Zoros attention is gathered by a rumbling sound coming down the path and they turn to look to see something big rolling their way. As it gets closer, they realize that it is Usopp and a huge backpack, they stick their foot up to stop him before he hits the ship. He thanks them before asking if he could use their ship since he is planning on setting out to sea himself. The Straw Hats are boarding their ship when Zoro tells him to just get on the Merry. Usopp looks confused but Luffy points out their friends now and that he wants him to join his crew. Usopp agrees by saying he is the captain which pisses Luffy off as the rest of Straw Hats look on smiling as they have gained a rather energetic new crew member.

TO BE CONTINUED

Authors Corner –

Thanks for reading, and please leave a review to let me know what you think!

Wow, it took me longer to write this chapter than I thought it would. This really made me realize that the Syrup Village Arc is my least favorite arc of the East Blue Saga and probably of the series as well. I didn't care for the Kuro plot or the kids protecting Kaya storyline either. I also really didn't like Usopp when he was introduced either, But he has grown on me massively since.

But I got through it and I can get closer to my two favorite arcs of the Saga in Baratie and Arlong Park.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned and again please leave a review!