Whiskey Peak, the only town of Cactus Island, had only one routine. If you see pirates, invite them in for a banquet, get them drunk, and then collect bounty heads. If they don't have bounties, send them off to auctions or marine bases.

For years now, Igaram has been stationed in this very spot, sending off countless pirates onto a life of agony his conscience could never allow him to atone for.

(He does occasionally 'allow' a few to escape, but to keep up the act, he must crush his own heart, and be the one that seals their fates more often than not.)

(Neither his hands nor the princess's hands were clean anymore. He will bring this regret with him to the grave, for the sake of the kingdom.)

(It hurts, so much. But he will do this, because his princess is suffering even more.)

So he had been greeting the pirates this time around. A jolly, young boy who ate like a country, a swordsman who could drink them dry, a womanizing chef who swooned over every woman that looked his way-- and then, the real threat of the crew-- the Girl with a Metal Arm, Burglar Cat Nami.

(She was red-listed at first, because she was part of Whitebeard's legion and thus reckless to be harmed-- but Igarappoi had done his research. According to reliable sources, she was now a free target.)

Despite her notorious prestige however, Igaram (oh eks-- ma ma MAA~! Excuse me. I meant to say, Igarappoi,) was relieved to know that she was careless and loved to party, similarly to the rest of her crew.

Getting them drunk and tired from the party and feasting wasn't easy (on their resources,) but when they fell asleep, the town was more than eager to strike.

"Quite a philosopher, aren't you, Mister Eight?" Miss Wednesday and Mister Nine address him from their spots on the roof.

The man is unfazed. "Ah, it's you."

"We've struck gold on this capture, Mister Eight," Miss Wednesday smiles, in the sinister way that she only saved for taunting the grunts they were deployed.

Mister Eight looks over-- small talk was something irrelevant to their code-- so such a mundane topic of conversation was not something Miss Wednesday would purposefully initiate. It was part of their plan to not be associated with each other, after all.

Miss Wednesday tucks a strand of loose hair behind her ear, and sets her hand in the center of her collar. "Though we've fallen behind on the race for prestige and the scourge of our mission, I believe their bounties would far make up for it. They can't possibly see this coming."

Mister Eight's gaze narrows.

"These pirates sure can drink," Miss Monday sighs, tearing off her nun garb as she leaves the bar full of sleeping patrons. "So Mister Eight, was this banquet necessary after all? I was under the belief that Burglar Cat was to be left untouched."

"That was only the case if she had ties to Whitebeard," Mister Nine interrupts, showing himself from one of the many roofs of the city. He tosses them a sheet from a larger newspaper, "as it is public knowledge now-- she's clearly defected, and is now working under the boy with the Straw Hat."

"The boy with the Straw Hat?" Miss Monday says in disbelief. That boy was the least impressive one of the lot. "Understandable, then. Shall we strike now?"

"Yes," Mister Eight only kept his eyes on Miss Wednesday for a moment, turning to the hundred of their grunts that have assembled in their moment of conversation. "First, we must seize them. Tie them up, and then we raid the ship--"

"Sorry, but they're a little tired from the journey. Mind letting them take a bit more of a nap?"

Zoro stands at the roof of the building overlooking the crowd.

It's just then that bounty hunters run out from the buildings-- because one of their crew members had escaped while they weren't looking. "Mister Eight, it's an emergency--!!"

"Wha-- he's up there?!"

"Wasn't he passed out just a moment ago?"

And really, it's quite a bold underestimation. Zoro's appalled to know that his reputation, which was useful for warding away weaklings, is completely looked down on in a place like this.

Well, at least it puts into perspective just how much of an underdog Easterns are. Time to prove them wrong, then.

Zoro scoffs. "A true swordsman never lets alcohol take control of him," he says.

Actually none of them should have seriously fallen asleep from the banquet after the warning, but there Luffy and Sanji were, snoring. Let's hope they wake up from the noise.

"About a hundred bounty hunters, one island into the Grand Line," Zoro says, biting Kogatana so he had hands to tie his black bandanna over his head. "So basically if I defeat all of them, I'll be one step closer to Mihawk's level, right?"

"Don't be overconfident, Zoro," here came another figure, wielding steel tonfas, "give me half of them. I've been itching for a fight, you ain't taking it away from me."

"No, eat my dust."

The crowd whirls on the newcomer.

Gin tightens his grip on the tonfas, looking over at the crowd, surveying his targets. The strongest ones would have to be the agents, one of which they were ordered by Nami to not touch. No helping that one.

His eyes meet Miss Wednesday and Mister's Nine's-- and they subtly nod at him.

"Wha-- there's another of them?!"

"They must have been hiding on the ship!" Mister Nine yells, his voice laced with feigned panic.

Mister Eight quickly fills in on the leadership role. "That's the Man-Demon, Gin! But he is nothing we can't handle-- everyone, we have three targets! Kill them if you must!"

The sound of rallying gunfire and shattering bricks, tinged with howls of pain and the screech of metal against flesh-- those harrying noises fill the night as blood soaked into the ever-menacing frame of the Cactus Rock.

What happens next can only be described as a showoff slugfest.

Gin and Zoro are brawlers, above everything else they do on the ship. They thrive in combat, on the field. So when one after another gets struck down by either a mallet or a butter knife-- well, that's better than accidentally shooting each other. Some weren't as fortunate.

Zoro runs around to lead the crowd, and Gin spears straight through.

They're different, but no one would dare think they weren't equally terrifying on their own.

Almost immediately as the fight begins, the agents fade out of the scene, save for Mister Nine who leads them tactically away from the other Strawhats.

"I'll keep watch. All forces, split up!"

Miss Monday remains on standby on her ambush spots-- but Mister Eight takes a run down the street with Miss Wednesday, under the guise of reaching their ambush spots.

(She had, after all, used the coded hand sign just a moment ago. That meant an emergency-- and that she had information to share in relation to their core mission.)

"We're leaving with the pirates," she says as they reach a junction. "The Log Pose takes half a day, so we need to buy two more hours before we can set out."

"With the Pi--?!" Mister Eight doesn't get a word in edgewise.

Miss Wednesday whistles, and Carue shows up. Mister Eight turns unhesitatingly into the next building, and Miss Wednesday moves on forward.

That was it. An order, prompt and silent-- and he obeys, because he knows that she knows what she's doing.

Two more hours.

They need to keep up the enemy act for two hours-- and then they'll have to turn right into the pirates for help and run.

Vivi's impulses are always worrying-- sometimes it isn't her fault, really-- but one thing, Igaram knows-- is that he's very much an enabler of all the reckless things his princess has ever done. It isn't going to change now.

(So he'll trust her-- and go with the plans even if he only knows a smudgeon of it now.)

Igaram takes a step toward the window.

And the carpet explodes under his feet.

Usopp and Gin hid out in the welcome.

Usopp did so, because it's much more viable for them to remain unaware of his existence than for them to realize he's blind. Gin would be too suspicious to enjoy himself in the banquet like the others, so he opted out of that part.

They had two jobs-- Gin had to help Zoro (though he vehemently denied the need for aid,) and Usopp was to locate the Unluckies and take them out.

He had stayed away at first, but buildings had to be approached, even by a sniper. Usopp didn't have the ability to scout out a group of strangers for two specific, unfamiliar auras-- so he had to approach it, and sense it out bit by bit.

Nami would do the same, but in her direction. Usopp could already feel her in the distance, making her way through the other end for those signs.

Someone shoots at him, but he swerves aside. Usopp dodges a sword attack in the same manner, and casually sticks his cane just a little too far under someone's feet, to which they trip and bowl over boxes and tools.

All they need after that is a spray of Usopp's probably -poisonous fumes from a mushroom that probably won't kill them from just one inhale, but will certainly knock them out, and then Usopp is free to go.

(Spywork kinda suits him.)

Not a lot of people notice him, since they're all so wary of the next person that shouts 'hey, Pirate Hunter is over there!' that they don't even notice the casual tap-tap-tap of his walking stick.

His Haki spreads out, carefully mapping out the location using the trajectories of the humans in the area. It's convenient when they're everywhere, because he doesn't even need his special devices to get a sense of space.

He'd locked on to the auras of the four agents for now, sifting through all the grunts to find his crew. Then he reaches out further, upward.

"See them anywhere, Kinoko?" Usopp asks.

Kinoko doesn't respond. She flies around, surveying from upward, but never quite making any vocal notice back. The Unluckies don't seem to be around.

So Usopp has to sift through the crowd, gradually trying to pinpoint which voices are even slightly stronger than the rest.

(It's hard to do, but it's the perfect opportunity to massage the precision of his Haki. He hasn't been leaving it unattended, but it's still so, so far from his best state of observation. He needs practice.)

He dodges another sword, deflects a gun too close to his head-- and freezes.

(He found them.)

Two clear and strong voices, one a little higher than everyone else, and one standing still by the crook of a corner. Those must be the Unluckies, so it's a relief they're nowhere near the crew, or the four agents.

Huh? If one of them is in the air-- Kinoko should have notified him by now, and the two birds would have started fighting. That was her job-- to distract the faster of the two executioners, long enough for Usopp to shoot it down.

Something isn't right.

(Where's Kinoko?)

Abruptly, Usopp realized that there was nothing up there. There was nothing in the sky. What was the presence he'd felt a second ago, then?

And how did he lose sight of Kinoko? She must have descended at some point-- but now that she's in the crowd, he can't find her without focusing.

(Or maybe she got taken out in the air and Usopp didn't even notice because that's how much of a tunnel vision his Haki gives him right now.)

His Haki was in disarray-- crap, breathe, Usopp. You know you Haki fails you when you panic! You can't panic now, look for Kinoko! You know her voice, you definitely do! She's definitely there somewhere. Just lost.

(What if it wasn't the Unluckies? What if it was an actual, stronger enemy?)

But it's too early for Mister Five and Miss Valentine to show up. Last time around, according to what Nami remembers, they only made themselves known after Zoro was done beating up a hundred men.

The timing should be the same, since they acted in the same way and even had a similarly long banquet. Luffy's appetite was always the best indicator of time, after all. It doesn't make sense for Friday and Valentine to have arrived on Whiskey Peak earlier than they had the last time.

...no.

Oh no.

That's it.

That's where Usopp's thinking is wrong. The timing isn't set in stone-- in fact, it's already run apart from the rails of the original, even before they got here.

(Because their timing isn't off. Our timing is.)

Usopp's eyes widen, and his Haki falters.

"There's someone there! You're not one of us, who are you?!"

A bullet grazes his ear, drawing blood.

He cringes, hiding by a ladder as his ears begin to ring. Usopp falls against a ladder-- so he grabs it and swings, hearing it shatter against the ambusher's figure.

They don't make another sound, but Usopp hits him one more time to make sure he's out cold. Cradling his bleeding ear, the thoughts finally catch up on him.

(This time around, the Straw Hats stayed on the Twin Capes longer than before to get Nami's arm replaced.)

(They were off schedule-- but the Baroque Works agents would not be..)

Usopp and Nami had been too overconfident about their past life knowledge, not realizing that things were changing in the most minuscule, insignificant ways.

How could they have overlooked this?

(They fucked up.)

(Vivi and Igaram are in danger.)

He runs forward, quickly making his way around, and around-- where is he going? He doesn't know either. But it's faster to cut through the crowd than to keep trying to sense voices he doesn't recognize. At the very least, he can use his ears if he's close enough.

He sets a hand on the wall, his breath coming fast and quick.

He hates this-- being so uncomfortably weak.

His body isn't his own, and his senses don't listen to him. His eyes are frustratingly out of tune with everything he wants to do, and his Haki stretches far, but doesn't pick up enough to be useful when there's so many unknown elements involved.

That's why he was happy when Kinoko came by. She was often absent and many times obnoxious-- but if there was something she never failed to do, it was come back to him,

Why wasn't she coming back to him?

(Because he lost sight of her. Yet, that is only one mistake among many.)

(When did he become so complacent?)

An explosion interrupts his thoughts-- and he lifts his head to the bright explosion not too far away from him. There's only one person that can make such a huge explosion here.

Usopp rushes forward, walking stick held beside him rather than before him.

If he had been careful for just a second longer, he might have been able to detect the sparks jolting sharply against his soles, rubbing against the strange water under his feet.

He doesn't see it though.

And the liquid bomb detonates under him.

When her careful tracing of Igaram's aura suddenly cuts off with the sound of a loud explosion, Nami's blood runs cold.

(Unlike Usopp, she didn't have the range or the ability to recognize voices in a crowd of more voices. So Usopp was the Haki finder. Nami was just scouting the normal way, only using Haki to follow Igaram's voice as a form of mental training for her own benefit.)

(But then, it flickered.)

(There aren't many situations where an aura flickers.)

She spins around, immediately making a run for the explosion. Why would anything explode? There was only one reason-- and that was the fact that their enemies had come early.

"I expected things to go wrong when I laid out the plan in front of Luffy," she says, trying to smile in the irony of the situation, "I guess we can say this was expected."

It was, after all, a threat they could handle. If they were early, then that was what Usopp and Nami are around for-- to scout them out first and come into contact early.

But she'd underestimated the butterfly effect, maybe a bit too much.

"So they were early enough to set traps and lie in wait?" then that changed everything.

Nami's bounty isn't as high as Luffy's, but her prestige is twice as worse, and was much better known in the Grand Line. Whatever that might mean in the eyes of Baroque Works agents-- she would have to find out now.

(Stop!)

She skids to a sharp brake, managing to halt in her advance in time for an invisible bullet-- felt only by the incredible gush of sonic force passing through her bangs-- shoot forth from the alley just a step ahead.

"I thought I had you."

Nami looks aside to find Mister Five, his revolver in his hands.

"Pulling a gun on a girl? How ungentlemanly," she teases.

Mister Five scoffs. "The Girl with a Metal Arm, Burglar Cat Nami," he says-- and really, Nami is starting to hate that extensive epithet. Stick to the latter, would they? "As if I'd let my guard down around someone with your notoriety. I'm not an amateur."

Nami whistles, charmed.

So they do have their professional pride after all.

(He already has his revolver out, which means he's not underestimating her at all-- now that was incredibly fresh. It's almost annoying.)

(She'll have to respond in kind.)

She assembles her Clima Tact and rests it horizontally across her shoulders. Upon seeing something beyond his figure, her eyes widen into something short of rage, and she lifts her shoulders, glancing morbidly at her opponent.

Behind him on the cold ground-- laying uncomfortably still, with wisps of awful-looking smoke rising from her body-- was Kinoko.

She had been shot down.

"Oh, was the bird your friend?" mister Nine asks, almost mockingly. "It was a menace to the nighttime view, so I cleared the air a little. Found a little something for my troubles, too."

And he flicks something into the air in absent-minded admiration.

It's a ring-- made of gold, from the reflection that beams from it, shining even in the moonlight.

"I'm not one for jewellery, but Miss Valentine would surely appreciate a good chunk of gold," he muses to himself. "It's a good tradeoff for this effort, since your bounty will be going into Whiskey Peak funds instead of our wages."

So their mission here is to capture Miss Wednesday, not specifically to take out the pirates. That's why they aren't together.

He regards the ring for another moment-- then, almost in jest, he strings it through his pinky.

Nami sees red.

She splits her Clima Tact into two-and-one, tossing the latter part further beyond as she swings the baton forward.

Mister Five pulls the trigger of his revolver at her foot.

Deftly, she avoids it by stepping back and quickly twirling to land with her metal arm on the floor. She catches her loose section of the Clima Tact as it returns.

"I see… your weapon functions like a boomerang with magnets," Mister Five observes.

"And you've used two of your six shots," Nami returns, easily recognizing the model of her gun.

(Chew had always been strangely obsessed with human artillery, and a drunk Chew would go on for years about the various models. Nami found herself with more worth as a sounding board this time around-- because, really, this was useful info.)

"Saving bullets?" she taunts, despite knowing full well that Mister Five didn't need a second to reload.

(But he didn't need to know that she knew his Devil Fruit powers.)

(Keep the misunderstandings coming, because she thrives on them. As long as it doesn't involve allies, of course.)

They were in a narrow, building-prone location. If we're comparing a gun to a throw-weapon, it's obvious who would win.

Nami splits off the Clima Tact once more, letting it ricochet off a wall before spiralling forward with all the force of air pressure that could break glass.

Mister Five is taken by surprise at the change in direction, but he doesn't need much to dodge, gathering his arm forward to fire all his remaining shots at once.

Nami ducks behind a wall-- but she doesn't expect the cement building to actually shatter when the bullet hits. Dust and splinters rain down on her, and she barely has time to protect her head.

Her jaw drops-- her memories betray her, because she doesn't remember Paradise enemies being this dangerous. The wall had been utterly blown to pieces by the force of an explosion that could only be a sonic boom.

(But is that the best he can do with his devil fruit?)

"The next shot won't be destroying just the building," Mister Five warns.

Nami grins. "Too bad you're not getting another, then," she grins, raising her hand just in time to catch a baton just as it swings back.

Mister Five scoffs, raising his gun toward his face, reloading it with one hard breath before clicking it back into place. "You underestimate me."

Nami nods. "Same to you."

Before the man could register the words, the last baton spins back, catching Mister Five by surprise as it smacks the gun right out of his hand.

Nami reassembles the staff.

"With drearily-despondent deals and a bleak, unsatisfying beatdown, the weather on Whiskey Peak is morose yet again tonight," she points upward as Mister Five scrambles to get his revolver back into his hands.

(What, did you think she was seriously using her Clima Tact as boomerangs?)

"What?" Mister Five looks up as a suspicious flash of light comes overhead. "A-- A dark cloud?! When did that--"

Nami beams.

"Tonight's weather forecast is a sudden squall, delving quickly into a furious storm!" she declares, tucking the pieces of her Clima Tact into her belt. "Watch out for lightning overhead, and refrain from wearing metals that are conductors!"

Mister Five had a second to realize the golden ring on his pinky is a conductor.

Sanji isn't asleep.

He gets up a moment after Nami does, and skulks somewhere away from the crowd.

"Now, where do they keep the food," he mutters to himself, trying to recall the paths the suppliers took when bringing in more food for Luffy to eat. "I think they were coming from this way..."

He nonchalantly walks past screaming humans and mass destruction. Just another, normal day in the world. The restaurant was like this too.

"Kyahaha! If it isn't Miss Wednesday."

"M- Miss Valentine!"

Sanji freezes. Approximately three miles away north-northwest of where he's standing-- he can hear… a woman.

(Two women.)

"Now don't try that fake smile on me, you very uncute little dearie," the former teases, "I'm sure you know why we're here. The boss sent us."

"Where's Mister Five… Igaram!" she realizes in horror.

"Oh no you don't!"

There's a sound of a strike, and a pained scream. A squawk that sounds faintly avian can be heard as well-- but Sanji knows that isn't Kinoko's voice. It's got a deeper intonation. Is it the one Usopp was warning about? The uh, Unlucky or something?

(Seriously, there are too many birds to keep track of now.)

But the bird aside-- oh lovely Miss Wednesday is in danger! So Sanji starts sprinting. He might even brag that he made it there in three seconds.

But, a new problem.

Sanji runs in just as Miss Wednesday is fiercely kicked off her steed. Sanji isn't quick enough to catch her as the ornament binding her ponytail shatters, and she tumbles harshly against the ground, her duck calling out in alarm.

The opponent lands, her heels digging in as she crouches down on the duck's very convenient saddle.

A smile.

In an instant, the duck crumbles under its own feet. Multiple kilos of weight grows and inflates on its spine, crushing down on its back.

Miss Wednesday is getting attacked… but the opponent is a lady, too.

(A very, very lovely lady, if he may-- no no focus-- she's an enemy--)

Sanji steps forward-- Miss Valentine looks up, parasol by her shoulder in curiosity-- and kneels. He gets on his knees and, despite everything, swoons -- "oh, lovely lady!"

Miss Valentine blinks, because what the heck?

"Oh, how you have charmed me! Your beauty surpasses the stars!" Sanji woos, "would you like some tea, mademoiselle? I quite recall a great blend in the storage. I shall go fetch it immediately."

He stands up, extending a hand in offer.

"Now, it's not very modest to crouch in such a manner. Please, if you would give me just a moment, I shall lay the table for you."

Miss Valentine takes it, if only out of sheer exasperation, and lets him stand her up, gracefully stepping back onto solid ground.

Sanji then swirls and picks up Miss Wednesday, bridal style. "And of course, my lovely Miss Wednesday! I'm so sorry your prince did not catch you in time. No no, I mustn't make you stand. Please, bear with this box as a seat for now."

And he sets her, almost too gracefully, onto a wooden box on the side.

Miss Wednesday and Miss Valentine are left to stare, almost awkward and incredulous, as Sanji dashes off. In less than a minute he produces a table, two chairs, a tablecloth, and a whole damn tea set.

Like, in the middle of the road and everything.

(Carue lays, foaming at the mouth but uh, probably not dead? Behind them, ignored and forgotten in the midst of everything else.)

They found themselves being served tea-- lemon tea, with honey and ginger, Miss Valentine knows immediately-- and her grip on her parasol tightens in anticipation.

"Bon appetit, mademoiselle," Sanji says, as they find themselves seated, parasol and weapons laid aside-- is this a chocolate sponge cake? Miss Valentine cannot believe her eyes right now.

(She hasn't had cake in a while. This was an emergency mission, so they didn't get a break in between. Plus, Mister Five was never a gentleman. He had his moments, but their relationship was professional above all else. And that was fine and all… but this.)

(Being treated like a princess? A lovely table, chocolate cake, and lemon tea. Oh, just take her heart with it, will you? She is figuratively head over heels.)

She takes the fork, takes a bite, and-- and well, she's gone.

"Is it to your liking, dear mademoiselle?" Sanji asks, with all the toner and splendor of a butler in a high class restaurant.

She hums in pleasure. "Oh, pretty boy," she looks up at Sanji with love in her eyes, cradling her chin in her palms alluringly, "won't you become mine?"

Sanji surprisingly doesn't falter.

"It pains me, mademoiselle--" he dramatizes, "but forgive me, for my heart belongs to every lady in the world. I cannot allow myself to be monopolized."

"Awh, what a shame," Miss Valentine sulks. "Please? Pretty please."

Miss Wednesday sits stiffly at her seat, wondering if she should stand up and bash them over the heads now that she had a chance-- or would it be better to let this play out?

(She has no idea. This is the first time she has ever been in a situation like this.)

"Another, please?" Miss Valentine asks, demanding another cake when Sanji miserably rejects her again. She sips on her tea, apparently having forgotten all about her mission.

"Of course," Sanji complies. Finally noticing Vivi's shocked expressions, he turns his attention to her. "Ah, Miss Wednesday my dear, do enjoy your tea before it gets cold."

"Ah, alright," she takes it in her hands quickly, her polite instincts going straight for the 'go with the flow' plan for some reason.

(She's not going to remember that they're supposed to escape until an hour of teatime later, but that's also besides the point.)

Luffy, for one, woke up to go to the loo.

A couple people jump him with swords and guns, and god they were annoying, what's with them? He's too sleepy for that-- they're almost as persistent as those monkeys back on Mt Corvo.

It's nice exercise, though. He digests all his food with the workout and finds himself wandering the town, not so sure where he is anymore.

"Oh, found Zoro," he approaches the pirate hunter.

Zoro, currently with his hand on a ladder about to chuck twenty people off a building, looks over. "Oh Luffy, you're awake."

"Yeah," Luffy says, "what're you doing?"

Zoro tosses the ladder off the building and gleefully listens to them scream. He dusts his hands, "nothing much. Just cleaning a little around the area," he says, pulling Kogatana back around his neck. "See Nami around anywhere?"

Luffy scrunches up his face in thought. "No…" he slurs the word, honestly unsure of himself. "Where is everyone anyways?"

Zoro shrugs. "They're probably lost somewhere. Hopeless, the lot of them."

"Heh…" Luffy considers. Then he looks at Zoro doubtfully.

There's a loud scream, and they both whirl around in alarm to see two men wielding large swords, swinging at them with a warcry.

Two simultaneous punches to the face later, Luffy and Zoro breathe out in relief.

"Scared me there," Luffy says, annoyed, "what's with all of these people? They were nice before. Did they eat a weird mushroom or something?"

"No Luffy, they are bounty hunters."

Luffy gawks in disbelief, "no they aren't! They gave us all a ton of food and sake!"

Zoro stares blankly at his captain. He raises his arm and-- grabs an ambusher by the neck, kneeing him in the face. He straightens. "You weren't listening to a single bit of the plan, were you?"

Luffy digs his nose, "what plan?"

Zoro groans, pressing his fingers into his eyes in irritation. "Now that explains why there wasn't a part where you had to do anything important…"

But Luffy's already got his attention elsewhere.

A little further from here, there's a trail of black smoke rising steadily from a house. Zoro and Gin were fighting in this area, so there's no reason there would be explosive damage over there.

Zoro catches his glance.

"Think it's Nami?" They have seen the storm ability utilized, after all.

(Luffy had wondered how he survived the Loguetown lightning before Nami wisely demonstrated, but that's a story for another time.)

Luffy shakes his head. "It doesn't feel like Nami's."

Zoro looks at him strangely. "What the heck does that even mean?" he asks, then takes it back immediately, "nevermind. Don't answer that."

"Maybe it's Usopp!" Luffy says, delighted to have possibly found someone else in the crew. "I'll go check it out. See ya!"

"Huh? Wait--" Zoro responds a little too late.

A hand reaches out from under, smashing him straight into a thick cement wall.

Miss Monday cracks her knuckles in annoyance, stepping forward.

She was covered in dust-- seemingly having been caught up in the chaos under. When she throws another punch, Zoro flips into the house to avoid it, regaining his balance for just a moment enough to swerve aside from the next.

Zoro looks back to note that Luffy was already gone.

(He let his guard down, that was his mistake. Maybe he should just be happy that Luffy trusted him enough to come back and check on him.)

"So, who're you?" he asks, as if he doesn't already know. "Let's hope you're a better fight than every other bounty hunter on this island."

"Of your caliber?" Miss Monday asks. "I'm the only fight you'll get."

Zoro doesn't draw Kogatana.

In a battle of strength, he knows he'll win easy.

Nami's nervous. She manages to take out Mister Five, but Igaram's aura in the distance is quickly weakening. Something must have happened-- it flickered, after all.

She'll need to hurry.

Snatching the ring back from the man's hand, she quickly surveys the location. Noting a new presence abovehead, she looks up--

--to come straight in the face of Mister Thirteen, the otter of the Unluckies pair.

"Wha--!!"

The otter nods at her, simply sketching something out onto a piece of paper. Knowing immediately what that is, Nami assembles her Clima Tact to quickly deal a strike in.

Honestly not to her surprise, the otter leaps easily out of the way. The otter produces a match from his pocket dimension, tossing it straight down at Nami. She swerves aside to dodge it, not quite seeing the point of that attack.

Then the realization strikes.

Mister Five lay at her feet, his entire body a bomb that only needs a little bit of friction to cause a spark that people would regret facing.And a match, a flare, a definitive light for an explosion-- was heading straight for him, far too low for Nami to catch before it reaches.

Nami hadn't bothered preparing for large explosions-- she had made the area damp with the squall, after all. No sparks are going to happen as long as she was careful.

But a lit match, on a perpetually explosive substance-- that's different.

Nami's gaze swirls in horror to Kinoko, her prone body shivering just two paces away. In this alley, there's nowhere an explosion of that caliber can hit.

(She can't handle another hit.)

"Kinoko!" she yells, diving forward. She discards her Clima Tact, encasing the bird's so, so fragile figure under her own.

The blast that meets her is not the largest she's experienced in such close quarters-- but it's certainly the first one for this life.

(All she can think about is that she's grateful she changed her arm into the Heat Model before getting here.)

"NAMI!"

She doesn't expect to hear Gin's voice, but when she does-- she's horrified for a completely different matter entirely.

There's a sharp clatter of steel against the ground, and Gin's larger body swoops in between them, arms coming around in a semblance of a hug as his figure covers her own.

(No no no, don't watch, don't just watch, there's something you can do, there's something you can--)

She reaches her metal arm behind him-- and shoves his head down. At the very least, she can protect his head. This arm can handle it.

His arms shielding her head and her arm shielding his. The explosion engulfs the entire alley, setting the world on fire around them.

And there's nothing else she can do.

(Because she's still so, so weak.)

(In the midst of flames, she can't even use her weather science. And though Gin is burning, she can't think of a better way to protect her fellow nakama.)

(She's always being protected.)

(Nothing has changed.)

She bites back the tears.

For what reason did she come back here?

Things were only different because of her newfound notoriety. If she wasn't so infamous now, then nothing would have been different and Gin wouldn't be suffering.

But she did.

She made things change, and that's why this is happening.

When Luffy finds Usopp, the sniper is barefeet, dusted slightly with chars of an explosion. Breathing heavily, he walks carefully-- but he doesn't notice that he leaves footprints in his path-- made of blood, red and growing denser the further he went.

That immediately makes every nerve in Luffy's system pull tight in alarm.

The smell of smoke is only in this place. Which is strange, because Luffy can't smell any of the sand-like odor you would find in the wake of explosions.

(Of course, he doesn't attribute that smell to gunpowder just yet. He only knows it as the smell of Dadan House's mysterious back room that explodes every time Ace sneaks in. He always thought it was a mystery place.)

Usopp's next step is met with a startled stop-- and the sniper barely manages to shove himself out of the way before the wall he touches explodes on contact.

Swearing under his breath, the sniper pulls out a pair of gloves from his bag, strapping them on contemplatively.

Then, almost as if the sniper has realized something, Usopp lifts his head, turning in the general direction of where Luffy was standing.

"Luffy!" Usopp calls, and the boy straightens with attention.

(Luffy swears that, though it isn't his strong suit, he was quiet all the way here. The explosions didn't really make it all that hard. It couldn't have been his smell either. Luffy's downwind-- he knows that much-- and there's smoke everywhere.)

(So how did Usopp know he was here?)

(...hey, what exactly is Haki, again?)

(Somehow-- he's suddenly realizing just how important it was, not only for Usopp, but for everyone else, and most probably, himself.)

(Because that would explain why Benn Beckman always knows exactly when he's snuck on their ship, and even which barrel he's hiding in before they set out.)

"Luffy, there are bombs around!" he warns. "You can't see them, but they're everywhere and activate when you step on them and touch-- nevermind, rubber won't cause sparks-- but they'll blow up if you step on them, so be careful!"

Luffy nods. So it's a mystery exploding area, got it.

It also explains why Usopp is covered in injuries. Maybe Luffy could stretch an arm over to get him back?

There doesn't seem to be any enemies around, though…

"Luffy, break the building under you!"

Huh? Luffy takes a moment to return to reality. Then oh, break the building under him. He throws a foot into the air and-- "Gomu-gomu no…" Shatter. "AXE!"

Oh wait, he forgot to ask for what.

And, ow.

Luffy gathers himself from the rubble, dusting off his stomach and putting his hat back on. He contemplates going out to ask what the deal is, but Luffy sees the answer for himself just a second later.

The man with the chikuwa-looking hair-- he'd greeted them when they arrived, so Luffy remembers him-- lay on the ground, right by the partially broken wall-- and the blood that pooled under him was not a good sight.

From the ragged-looking breathing, to the way he obviously seems to have dragged himself two paces forward only to give up-- then Luffy looks aside and spots the leg.

Or the lack thereof.

HIs breath stills. "H-" he has to take a second, but he's down and shaking him. "Hey, Chikuwa-Ossan! Hey! Are you alive?"

He is. And his hand, with strength that even Luffy winces at-- maybe it's the nails, maybe it's the desperation, but Luffy felt it-- grabs Luffy's wrist.

And he looks up, his lips bitten to bleeding and his eyes bloodshot with vigor.

"Vivi…" he croaks, and he tries to push himself up.

Luffy's eyes widen as he notices that his chest was seared badly, his clothes burned and red from the blood that was just carved into flesh.

Luffy's seen wounds like these before. And he knows these things don't heal.

(Dadan still has a large, tender wound on her stomach, remnants of protecting Ace in the Gray Terminal Fire-- though she would never let it show.)

(But Luffy knows these are worse.)

They need a doctor. They need a doctor for this guy now or he'll--

"P- Please," he chokes out, looking at Luffy with the eyes of the most desperate, most distraught man in the world. He talks through the agony in his entire being-- and throws his head to the ground in plea. "Please... save the princess."

(And Luffy's worldview crumbles.)

"What?!" he exclaims, "wait, Chikuwa-Ossan! We need to get you to a doctor now. Just wait, alright?!"

"No," he's firm about this. "Right now, the princess is of priority. Please."

And Luffy's eyes widen.

(This is familiar. Familiar in a way he doesn't like to think about.)

(This is like Ace, and like Shanks-- a wretched, desolate sign that things didn't matter as much as it looked. They just wanted to protect the one thing they treasured, and they were going to do it.)

(Luffy has always been on the protected side of the situation.)

(This would be the first time he's seeing it from this direction.)

And there's so much blood. There's the sickening smell of burning flesh and wood and steel and… and the grip on his hand is warm but growing colder.

It makes him dizzy.

It makes him remember things he doesn't want to. It makes him count in his head because that's what Ace always told him to do when he feels like this.

But all he sees is Igaram's face swollen with tears, in a way that Luffy knows-- Luffy knows it's the face people make when they hate themselves-- and he hates it, so much.

(These things always end up the same way, after all. It doesn't matter if he barely knows this guy-- he resents this situation and every factor that leads up to it.)

"Yeah, I'll help her," he says, despite not fully understanding the situation. Maybe it doesn't matter, because he can catch up later. "I promise."

("I promise.")

He promises.

So when the man lets go of Luffy's hand, a relieved smile on his face-- Luffy picks him up over his shoulder-- and leaps upward.

There's still a bit of breath, but it's weakening with each second.

"Usopp!' he calls, and throws an arm forward.

Usopp stands there, shocked-- but thankfully, he doesn't need to avoid or catch it. Luffy wraps his arm around Usopp, and slings him right back to his side.

With screaming in between.

"Luffy!" Usopp yells once he's snapped to Luffy's side, secured and limp from the literal jet coaster. "Ah, did you get Iga--"

Usopp freezes mid speech.

Luffy doesn't say anything about it. He turns back toward the fighting in the distance, noting that it has visibly dwindled since.

"Are there bombs around here, too?" Luffy asks, his voice more solemn than it has any right to be. The body on his shoulder grows colder, but he doesn't look at it.

Usopp bites his lips, but he strangles out an answer, trying hard to compose himself.

"Yeah," he says. "But you'll be fine. Just take off your sandals."

Luffy steps off his sandals, which Usopp picks up noting his lack of a free hand. The captain then shrugs his straw hat off his head, allowing Usopp to catch it.

"Hold onto that just in case," he says, almost without thought. "We gotta go now."

Usopp covers his face with the hat so the frustrated tears could fall, but Luffy pretends to not notice.

(Mister Five's ability to create intangible explosives never had an opportunity to shine last time around. The pair were always chasing after the Strawhats and coming one step behind, so he was reduced to head-on attacks, never utilizing his ability otherwise.)

(But he did so in the alcohol last time around, didn't he? He bombed the sake they gave to the giants. Mister Five has always excelled at preparing traps like that, and Usopp had forgotten that.)

(Usopp hasn't underestimated an opponent in ages.)

(He grew overconfident, and that's why this is happening.)

(They fucked up.)

(They fucked up, and they don't know if Igaram's going to make it.)