Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece

Thank you CuddlyChristina for helping me write this chapter. Now once I post it I'll finally get to have a good nights sleep.

X_X_X_X

It wasn't just the failed job interview, every time they walked they would see the grimace on the townspeople's faces and had to look down so the townpeople didn't provoke them.

"When your mother died your father promised to make sure your safe and get a good education. After your father went missing your grandfather promised the same thing. And after he stayed behind to help you escape, I promised him I would carry out that promise. I'm sorry, Hardy, that you have no adults in your life who can keep their promises." Levi said.

Hardy frowned, letting out a bleak sigh. All this bad luck changed the moment they ran into someone with a sword and blond hair. He looked like the townspeople, but he seemed completely different.

"Are you two tired of the life you live and want to move...to a completely different place?" He asked.

"We have our problems but what your telling us sounds like something our preacher would offer, and no one takes everything their teacher monologues seriously anymore." Levi replied.

"Okay. But just let me give something to your son."

The man reached his hand out and it vanished like an optical illusion. The hand returned with a hat being grasped. Hardy was surprised but at the same time curious as to what was inside the hat.

He reached into the hat and pulled out a violin. "What you need...it gives you. You don't ask it to give, you can't make it give, you can only need it and that's called self-reflection."

He put the hat on Hardy's face while playing his violin, now with both hands.

Hardy's frown soon transformed into a smile, before he pondered over what he had in mind. Surely, the hat would deliver.

"Yeah, yeah, nice tricks." Levi said in his cynical voice of the way he was tormented by people like the man before him. "We are leaving now and taking your hat with us."

This prompted Hardy to hold onto the hat almost immediately.

The guy waved goodbye to the young boy and the young man before he walked away from them. After that, Levi went to another place to find work. This time the manager was just saying rude things to him by his appearance alone.

But he did offer Levi a job, if he worked for only thirty Beli a day at a nine hour shift day. Levi agreed simply because it would stop Hardy from starving.

To him, Levi felt like a good friend to him.

"I finally got a job. Let's go get you some books to prepare for school." Levi said.

"I don't think they want us in there." Hardy replied, shuddering like he was useless.

"Oh, come on! It's only harmless!" Levi exclaimed with a smile.

Hardy knew he was right but nervously laughed that he was wrong.

The lunch was awful, the chefs not even trying to cook their meals and everyone leaving because they didn't want to be in the same restaurant as them. At least it was a hot meal for once.

The next day, Hardy got to go to school. This school was an isolation to happen. He was alone in a white room with a rusty chair and a table with carvings on it. He didn't know if there were any teachers present.

That's when a teacher walked in, a man in his thirties wearing a suit and carrying an apple. He looked at Hardy and sighed. And then, he started chewing on his apple. He chewed and chewed; by the time he finished chewing he already chewed one hundred and fifty times.

"Open your book and go to Chapter 1."

Hardy could only comply as he opened his book and started reading that certain chapter.

The teacher kept taking a bite and chewing so many times on each bite, it was astounding in a scary way. The teacher was chewing not making sure Hardy was reading, not that Hardy couldn't read it but reading wasn't the same as understanding.

At the end of the day—six hours of a teacher with no help other than watching a young starving kid try to learn—Hardy was reunited with Levi who told him he worked in the back, dusting shelves and moving inventory...out of daylight and out of sight.

"So how was school?" he asked.

"Terrible." Hardy simply replied.

"That's too bad. Did you at least get to talk to the other kids?"

"There were no other kids. I was taught alone...if you count reading while some overpaid pig chews more than a mouse that."

Levi suddenly frowned, as he simply couldn't help but feel bad for the poor boy.

One day, Hardy just decided to walk out of the classroom only a half hour in to see if his teacher would do anything to stop him. He didn't. Hardy walked out of the building into the streets of xenophobe's and biased villagers. In that village, he saw his guardian Levi. He was pulling a very heavy chart through the roads. It seemed like a very important job, a job Levi liked most since he liked feeling like if he didn't hold onto something it would fall, but that job put him into the view of the villagers.

A job throw a cucumber at Levi. It bounced off his nose, making the surrounding adults cheer.

Hardy noticed and was surprised as to how Levi's nose seemingly deflected the vegetable.

The townspeople tried again, throwing dozens of fruits and vegetables simultaneously at the visitor who couldn't defend himself. But then, the fruits disappeared through an invisible wall. Wall was what Hardy believed, but the fruits and vegetables came back out in a reverse direction; heading back at the villagers.

The villagers eventually stood in stunned silence, before Levi told them, "Is that the best you can do?"

"Getting cocky when someone was helping you. Your welcome."

Hardy remembered that voice. It was the man who gave him the hat, and of today he had a sword in his hand.

"What's that you got in your hand?" he asked him about the sword.

"This? This is how I—" he was interrupted by a villager throwing a rock at him, causing him to react swinging his sword just after the rock hit, and swinging again causing the face of a manticore to appear through a hole and roar at the villager. "...get to move away from deplorable people."

When he swung out of reflex, a green fruit with lots of strange round grapes came out. It rolled right up to Hardy's feet, and he in turn wanted to eat it.

Hardy picked one up, examining it for a bit before asking, "Hey is this edible?"

No one answered him, but a voice in his head was telling him to just eat it.

'It can't be helped, I guess...' He shrugged, before taking a bite out of it.

At first it tasted great, but then it tasted like meat not cooked, the inside of a shoe, and fish bones all together. Finally, Levi and the weird guy noticed him eating this strange fruit.

Levi didn't like the look of disgust on his small friends face, but the man had a strange smile on him.

"Amazing. Even though there are no Devil Fruit's in this dimension, he's still obtained it."

Hardy looked up and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Let's say you obtained a power and that power comes at...a small unnoticeable cost. It also means, in two days you will take up my offer that your guardian declined."

Hardy's eyes slightly widened in surprise. 'But what cost?' He thought to himself.

"Allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Krauss." He noticed Hardy was wearing the hat he gave him. Slowly and with gentle intention, he lifted Hardy's hat. He pulled out toothpaste and a brush from the hat, something Levi believed was another trick. "Devil Fruit's don't just taste bad. If left uncleaned, you'll build up plaque in your gums. Do me a favor and please brush those gums."

Hardy was surprised, but it seemed Krauss had a point concerning the whole 'brushing your teeth' thing.

Hardy gave in and started brushing his teeth. He felt weird. It felt like his own teeth were melting. Not shavings of once strong teeth chipping away, melting.

He then thought of something, before looking into his hat, and pulling out a tube of toothpaste, to his surprise.

His gums still felt weird. He reached his hand inside. He touched something small and sticky like candy. It could be just the toothpaste, but even hims gums had the same texture as toothpaste.

At last he took his finger out; a wiggling gelatinous small rod that was once his finger but now small and pink.

Hardy almost jolted in surprise, before taking a closer look. He was sort of unaware of the fact that he himself could turn into gum-like shapes.

The rest of the day was Hardy sitting down letting his bubblegum skin show while Levi worked the night shift. At last, he returned...red eyed and hunched.

Hardy took notice and was quick enough to find Levi and ask, "Are you allright?"

"The work was exhausting and worst of all it was in the dark. My eyes are in the darkness only to leave when it's dark. But the worst part was my boss might get a younger person a promotion over me, the xenophobe."

Hardy frowned, and couldn't help but give Levi a hug. That made the older boy smile, prompting him to hug him back.

The next day, Hardy was back sitting at the chair with his chewing teacher. Hardy used a bit of gum he put in his teachers' apple. Now, he was waiting for his reaction.

After over a dozen more quick and loud chewing sounds, the teacher practically barfed out his Apple. Instead, little droplets of solid chewing gum fell out.

He suddenly jolted in shock upon noticing the gum on the floor. "What is that?" he asked nervously.

Hardy didn't say anything to his ignorant teacher, but he did hide a smile on his little face.

The rest of the class the teacher never took a bite of one of his apples. He had no choice but to try talking to the eight year old demonym which included teaching him things Hardy didn't know just reading to himself. His class was the best one yet.

All that changed when he saw Levi on the streets...on the ground...being stomped on by three men wearing strange clothes.

"What do you want from me?!" Levi asked.

"Your don't belong here." One said, spitting after relaying that information. "Luckily you...you get to die here,"

The man pulled out a flintlock and aimed it right at Levi's head. Before he could pull the trigger, Hardy rushed in and raised his hands to shield guard his friend. The man looked at Hardy, not seeing that it was only a child protecting his friend, and talked in a cold calculating way.

"Three...Two...One...You should have moved before I said Zero."

The man pulled the flintlock and shot Hardy in the head.

X_X_X_X

Charlotte was able to finally reach the Mink Tribe's island.

"Well, here we are, guys." she told the other nakama as she helped anchor the ship.

None of her crew climbed aboard. They were humans and Charlotte was the only beastman among them.

"You think this a good idea to go down there?" Etoile asked.

"Well, what did you expect? We're going there for a reason." Charlotte replied.

"Where is Hardy?" Jio asked.

"He decided to find something to float to the island...not found on the train or our ship. He said it involved birds. Anyways, I'll go ahead and the rest of you skulk outside the village until I talk to you."

"Well, this sucks..." Mikio said under his breath.

Charlotte rolled her eyes before taking her new werewolf form and strutting to the village.

X_X_X_X

Meanwhile, Hardy was floating to the island one little bubblegum piece at a time latched to the dead bodies of seagulls.

He couldn't transform back into his human form—parts of him were attached to Charlotte in the form of fur—but he could turn into a petite form of a Mink. He turned into a green yellow spotted toad.

He let out a small ribbit, which nearly got her attention. Charlotte was the ostentatious one while Hardy was her eyes on the ground.

Eventually, they found a lone Mink picking berries by herself. Her appearance was that of a humanoid fox, a vixen as they were properly called. She was wearing a white blouse, her sleeves cut short, and a blue skirt with most of it cut off to show her orange-cream-colored ankles. Foxes, being a four-legged animal, meant that she needed lots of wiggle room, when she turned around...and they saw she had yellow eyes and a small pink scar on her orange nuzzle.

"Ehhmmm." Charlotte coughed, trying to get the vixen's attention.

She turned to Charlotte, sniffing her small black nose on her. She seemed cold and calculating on first impression.

"You must be a monster." she said.

"Minks can actually talk?!" Charlotte asked out of bewilderment.

"I am a petty toad Mink working for this full fledged werewolf, who just wants to see the inside of your tribe. May we?" Hardy asked.

She looked at them, then she walked closer. Her long nose rubbed against Charlotte's wolf nose as she stared into the captain's eyes.

"No good for nothings are allowed in our village. You want to see it, you have to work to get in."

"Work? But how, exactly?" Charlotte asked, crossing her arms.

"Walk with me. I'll take you to a friend working as we speak. He hasn't been allowed inside yet and he's already pushed fifty-seven trolley's of fruit to the village."

Charlotte pondered briefly, before nodding and replying, "Very well then."

Hardy and Charlotte were lead to rails leading to a wooden gate, with a rhino Mink pulling on a trolley of fruit.

"Hey! Who are these nobodies?" he asked her.

"Never asked; they never said. Your names?" She asked.

"My name is Charlotte." Charlotte said, waving her furry arm.

"And my name is Hardy." Hardy said, doing a few short jumps greeting the vixen.

"My name is Kelsey, and this is Randy, who happens to be a friend of mine." Kelsey replied.

Kelsey roamed the woods and came back with a smaller trolley and an axe.

"Charlotte, you'll be cutting down trees. Hardy, you'll also be pulling fruit inside with Randy." Hardy immediately raised his hand. "I thought I made your job perfectly clear, but go ahead."

"I want to be the one to cut down the trees."

"What makes you want to say that, Randy?" Kelsey looked over at Randy with a raised eyebrow.

"Down here." She looked down, saw the little toad waving at her. "Because I know how to use an axe."

"Really? You're just some toad." Kelsey retorted, crossing her arms with a smirk.

"Give me that axe and you'll see what a toad can do." He stated.

She gave in and handed the small toad an axe. Despite his small stature, he walked up to a tree and leaped, swinging his axe like a cyclone against the tree. His slash only left a small slash mark. Kelsey was unimpressed.

Just when she was about to take that axe away from him, the tree rattled on the bottom and fell on the ground.

"So strong." She said out loud, thinking she wouldn't cause any attention doing so.

Hardy didn't cause the tree to fall, Jio did with Rollicka's help. He was hiding behind the trees.

"Shouldn't you have used that power to help move the trolley's?" Rollicka asked his friend.

"Hardy wanted to get an axe cutting job so I helped him get one."

After that showmanship, Hardy was allowed to use the axe to cut down trees. He asked permission to cut down trees in isolation, which Kelsey gave him. His plan was to walk where no one could see him, then cut down the trees in his true form.

"I guess he wants to work on his own, I believe." Randy told Kelsey.

"Perhaps." was her reply.

Both Minks turned to Charlotte. She was pulling the heavier trolley with lots of fruit inside. While moving the trolley to the gate, her ears picked up someone repeating propaganda.

"All Minks are equals, but some Minks are more equal than others."

'Equality?' she thought to herself.

She pushed her back and forth to pull the trolley. She cared fruit in the dozens, most shaped like melons but some with cracks and a rotting smell in the core of the fruits.

At the end of the day, she didn't get in, and she had to massage her arms.

"Being in my wolf hybrid form all day us exhausting." She groaned.

She took a brief look around, before noticing something familiar in the distance.

It was a man in a Marine attire followed by a man in his late forties with shaggy silver hair, a dark blue trench coat, a hilt of a long shaft weapon sticking out of his coat, with carvings on the back of his head. The Marine was just a uniform that happens to have a long teeth, green eyes, spaghetti black haired, four foot man.

Most people couldn't see what they look like in the dark, but Charlotte had special eyes being a Zoan fruit user, so long as she was in her true wolf form. They were walking to a figure much harder to read-bulky with a tail-holding a baby. The two other men were carrying two containers in their hands.

This was where Charlotte became curious. Once the two reached the other guy, they swapped what was in their hands. The two men took the baby and the bulky one took the containers.

"Etoile." Charlotte whispered.

She dropped from a tree branch, sank to the ground with her knees bent, and then stood up to Charlotte's level.

"I'm going to guess you want me to follow those two lanky figures. See where their taking that baby." She guessed.

Charlotte nodded, which prompted Etoile to focus her attention on the two figures. 'Just how the hell did she get here?' she thought to herself.

Etoile moved like a ninja, moving from tree branch as she loomed over the suspicious Marines. She followed them until they reached a train that could move on water like the one her captain's ship was on, and then they pulled on the hatch and walked inside.